In a stark reminder of the exploitation of street children, a new study has found that one out of every five street urchins in Delhi is a rag picker. With most adults unwilling to do the work of rummaging through the city's garbage, an overwhelming number of children have been driven to do it. About 15% children are street vendors, while 15% depend on begging for their living. With the country...

India is seeking a postponement of the decision on a global ban on Endosulfan to the next meeting of the conference of parties to the Stockholm Convention in 2013, according to observers. C. Jayakumar and Dr. Mohammed Asheel, observers from Kerala to the ongoing conference of parties to the Convention in Geneva, said in an email message that India had distributed a draft of its proposal among the Asia Pacific group...

The Arjun Munda government’s headlong drive to distribute new ration cards among 50 lakh families across the state is turNINg out to be an organised chaos, with acute crunch of application forms and clueless public representatives fielded for the job. While a three-day, statewide camp kicked off today to arm every family in rural and urban pockets with ration cards that entitle them to subsidised foodgrain, kerosene, et al, inadequate number...

The National Litigation Policy (NLP) aimed at reducing the cases pending in various courts in India is NINe months old, but the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which is supposed to implement the pro-citizen policy in the banking sector is unaware of it. The Department of Banking Operations and Development in the RBI's central office in Mumbai has told a Right to Information (RTI) activist that it does not have any...

Campaign against Bhushans seen as a bid to scuttle proposed Bill Prashant Bhushan has appeared for social causes without charging any fees: NAPM “His voice against Operation Green Hunt has also raised hackles in certain quarters” Even as the Union Finance Minister and chairman of the joint drafting committee on Lokpal Bill, Pranab Mukherjee, said over the weekend that the controversy surrounding some panel members would not impact the formulation of the Bill,...