-The Times of India Bengaluru: To reduce the growing traffic congestion and pollution in the city, the Karnataka government is toying with the idea of hiking the Vehicle Registration fee and other charges for those who want to own more than one four-wheeler. "We're working on this plan... Higher tax on the second vehicle would discourage citizens from owning too many vehicles, and also raise additional revenue for the government. Before we...

-PTI Chakan (Pune): Environment minister Prakash Javadekar today said the court ban on 2,000cc and above diesel cars and SUVs in the National Capital Region was "not the right way". Calling it "unfortunate", he said the government was taking measures to curb pollution but the ban had resulted in vehicles with latest technologies not being allowed while old polluting vehicles were still plying. "I am very sure that courts will also appreciate that...

  It brings unbearable agony and distress to parents, when a new born child or a young one dies in the family. Fortunately, the latest available data shows that the proportion of infant deaths (less than 1 year of age) in total deaths has fallen between 2004-06 and 2010-13. A similar declining trend could be observed in the proportion of under-5 deaths (less than 5 years of age). The leading causes of...

-The Hindu New Delhi: No lessons were learned; in fact it is unlikely that any can be learned from the Delhi Government’s odd-even experiment earlier this month as air quality data from the 15-day period has thrown up inconclusive results. After being pulled up by courts for Delhi’s abysmal air quality, the government had announced on December 4, 2015, that it would conduct an experiment to reduce vehicular traffic, thereby reducing pollution....

-The Indian Express While Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands display high numbers of criminal activity, India stands with Yemen and Lebanon in the lower zone. Last month, when women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi was pushing through amendments to Juvenile Justice Act in Parliament that would lower the age of culpability as an adult from 18 to 16, she cited a rising number of crimes by juveniles. In the year...