-The Indian Express Pune: About 1200 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will be deployed for relief and rescue operations as cyclone Lehar is expected to hit coastal Andhra Pradesh by Thursday. The rescue and evacuation operations which involve Teams from the defence paramilitary forces will include 30 NDRF Teams, each consisting of 40 personnel, according to Alok Awasthy, commandant of Pune-based fifth NDRF battalion. While 10 Teams from Vijaywada-based...

-Economic and Political Weekly There is overwhelming evidence to show that capital-intensive metro rail systems serve only a small proportion of the total trips in cities in developing countries such as India. Public-private partnerships have not been very successful, and the Delhi Metro, which is considered to be the most successful project despite falling far short of its projected number of users, enjoys numerous tax benefits not offered to the bus...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With the general elections just four months away and rollout of UPA's flagship Food Security Act at stake, commerce minister Anand Sharma is facing a challenge that few of his eight predecessors who attended WTO ministerial meetings have faced. Already, there is a demand to block a compromise formula or a "peace clause" that will prevent any WTO member from seeking penalties against a developing country...

-The Hindu "Tehelka" tried to conceal the gravity of its Editor-in-Chief's alleged sexual assault, which is rape under the amended IPC. It tried to divert attention to an inquiry by an in-house committee mandated by a 2013 law meant to protect women in workplaces. This Act deals with sexual harassment of a lesser degree, the offences under it are non-cognisable, and it is in limbo since the government has failed to...

-The Telegraph Patna: Students of around 210 government schools in Patna district would have to skip their midday meal for the next fortnight. A day after a dead rat was found in the midday meal supplied to the Government Primary School in Saidpur, the chief minister today ordered stern action against the non-government organisation (NGO) which supplied the food to the school. Ekta Shakti Foundation, a Delhi-based NGO, supplies midday meals to 210...