-The Business Standard Clamp down on burning of waste, industrial smoke Come winter, and Delhi is wrapped in a blanket of smog. It isn’t pretty. Also, it poses grave environmental, health and transportation hazards. Winter seems to have come early this year, and so has the smog. The economic costs are considerable: the winter schedule of airlines and trains invariably goes haywire owing to poor visibility. People breathe in more particulate...

-The Economic Times AHMEDABAD: Wheat output may remain stable this season due to remunerative prices and sufficient water availability. However, agriculture officials feel that the delay in announcing wheat MSP for rabi season might deter farmers. "We don't see a drop in wheat acreage this year and the production should clock similar to that of previous year's 93.90 million tonne. It will be too early to say that the area will increase...

-CNN-IBN Ghazipur: Semraul village in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur district is an example of how irresponsible the bureaucracy can be. The population of the village is 3,600 but on paper neither the village nor its inhabitants exist. Due to the negligence of government employees the population of the village on paper is zero. Village pradhan Sabhajit Singh Kushwaha is struggling to get this glaring error rectified. In this village there are more than...

-The Times of India Private companies have hijacked the government's flagship scheme to provide food to poor children and their mothers, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), with contractors in Maharashtra alone controlling Rs 1,000 crore worth of supplies in contravention of Supreme Court orders, a report of the SC commissioners office has said. The SC orders bar contractors from supplying rations under the scheme. It only permits village communities, self-help groups...

-The Indian Express A report submitted in the Supreme Court on Friday indicted the Maharashtra government and Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan over a “close nexus between politicians, contractors and bureaucrats,” facilitating extensive wrongdoings in supply of supplementary nutrition to children through the Central government-sponsored Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). The report, prepared by the principal adviser to SC-appointed Commissioner Biraj Patnaik, also highlighted that in Uttar Pradesh, supply of supplementary nutrition has...