-CNN-IBN The Centre on Monday filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Karnataka High Court order on minimum wages in National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The Centre told the Supreme Court that if the Karnataka High Court judgment is not set ASIde it will impose a burden of Rs 7,500 crore on the Government and cites lack of fund. The Karnataka government has fixed a minimum wage of Rs 145...

After allowing swapping of organs, India is working on another landmark step in organ transplantation: a single apex national organization that will procure and distribute human organs. Union health ministry is setting up the autonomous National Organ Procurement and Distribution Organization (NOPDO) at the Centre and 10 State Organ Procurement and Distribution Organization (SOPDO) under the country's new National Organ Transplant Programme (NOTP). Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, West Bengal, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh,...

-The Telegraph The Canadian Medical Association Journal has sought a ban on the disclosure of foetal sex until after 30 weeks of pregnancy amid concerns that sections of ASIan immigrants, including Indians, in Canada selectively abort female foetuses. The journal said the sex of a foetus need not be revealed to any woman before 30 weeks because such information was medically irrelevant and could, in some instances, facilitate female foeticide. Postponing the disclosure...

Third report in three months to highlight lack of quality education in India; poses risk to knowledge hub hopes Nearly two years after the Right to Education (RTE) Act was introduced with the promise of providing free and compulsory education to all primary school children, the learning outcome in the country has actually deteriorated in terms of quality. In yet another wake-up call for policymakers, the 2011 Annual Status of Education Report...

-The Hindu   ‘Neo-liberal policies fine-tuned to global capitalist accumulation to blame' Neo-liberal policies fine-tuned to global capitalist accumulation are increASIng poverty, mass deprivation and unemployment besides undermining food security in India, economist Utsa Patnaik said on Friday. Delivering the inaugural ‘T.G. Narayanan Memorial Lecture on Social Deprivation' under the auspices of the Media Development Foundation and the ASIan College of Journalism here, Prof. Patnaik said contrary to the claims by the Centre about...