-The Telegraph The Indian economy grew at just 4.4 per cent in the first quarter ended June 30 - its slowest pace in four years. The grim figure deepened worries for the UPA government, which has been battling criticism over its failure to halt the slide in the rupee, cap deficits, ignite growth and slam the lid on inflation. The tepid growth had been anticipated with finance minister P. Chidambaram acknowledging a few...

-The Telegraph Two Union government health agencies colluded with a foreign entity to conduct a mass vaccination campaign on thousands of girls in India four years ago, violating medical ethics and national laws, a Parliamentary committee said today. The Parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare has blamed the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Drugs Controller General of India for collaborating with the US-based Program for Appropriate Technologies...

-The Hindu The long-pending Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Thursday night after Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh assured the House that the measure allowed enough room for State governments to implement it as per their requirements. The Bill is only setting a bottom line for fair compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement in the case of land acquisition and State governments were free to further...

-The Hindu There was a last-minute hiccup in the passage of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill in the Lok Sabha on Thursday when the Trinamool Congress demanded that the clause mandating private projects to take the consent of 80 per cent of landowners be changed to 100 per cent, as is prevalent in West Bengal. The State, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said, could change this provision, but...

-The Hindu The currencies of India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and Turkey have fallen quite dramatically against the dollar in the past few months. Whatever their domestic weaknesses, the reasons for this unprecedented decline - ranging between 13 to 21 per cent - are primarily global. In the past 48 hours, as tension mounts in West Asia, an already unprecedented situation has become even more difficult. On Wednesday, the rupee, as...