-The Hindu Lax monitoring, poor public engagement and inadequate training to vaccinators have dealt a serious blow to the crucial pentavalent immunisation programme The Pentavalent vaccine, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's latest addition to the immunisation programme, has run into a storm. The Supreme Court has sent a notice to the Ministry asking why the vaccine should not be banned in the country. The vaccine is no stranger to controversy. A...

-The Economic Times KOLKATA: In the wake of the just-enacted National Food Security Act, the Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution, Prof KV Thomas recently reviewed the operations of Food Corporation of India (FCI), especially from the point of view of its preparedness for implementing the law. Expressing satisfaction after the review, Prof. Thomas said the FCI had been undertaking various steps in the last one year towards increasing the storage...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today warned Bengal and Andhra Pradesh with "consequences" if they failed to respond to an eight-month-old directive relating to a law that has led to arrests over "objectionable" Internet Posts. On January 19, the court had asked all states and Union territories to respond to a central advisory that said no arrests should be made under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act without sanction...

-Down to Earth Money pumped in development schemes in Bihar is giving rise to a new breed of village heads, flush with money and flexing muscles About a year ago killings and a spurt in the purchase of arms and luxury vehicles in extremely backward villages started to bother the Bihar police. It spied and found that mukhiyas, or village heads, had multiplied their assets beyond imagination. It took the police six...

-The Hindu Despite deriving their power from Dalits and the marginalised, the principal parties in Uttar Pradesh have turned away from the real issues confronting these sections, says Dalit writer Kanwal Bharti on his recent arrest My recent arrest has superbly exposed the well crafted illusion of socialism as professed by the Samajwadi Party (SP). I was arrested under Sections 153 and 295 A of the Indian Penal Code for criticising the...