-The Telegraph   New Delhi: The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to allow clinical trials on new pharmaceutical compounds only after ensuring to the extent possible that their potential benefits outweigh their risks and they are needed in India. A bench of Justices R.M. Lodha and Kurien Joseph, responding to a public interest petition by a non-government organisation called Swasthya Adhikar Manch, also told the Centre to ensure that the candidate compounds...

-The Business Standard   Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can be assertive when he chooses to. He has certainly imposed his will on the government to push the case for the controversial genetically-modified (GM) food crops. Documents reviewed by Business Standard show, for almost two years, Singh and his office have been the moving force behind the decision to go ahead with field trials of GM crops, including food crops, without awaiting regulatory reforms...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha polls are not only under the watch of the Election Commission and financial agencies for corrupt practices, but also under the scanner of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). For the first time, the agency, under instructions from the home ministry, will collect data on poll-related offences such as liquor/money distribution, communal or hate speeches, false Affidavits by politicians, poll violence, bogus voting and...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Is corruption really an issue in elections? Some surveys claim that people worry more about the economy than corruption. Poll data for 2004 and 2009 general elections show that not only do political parties continue to repeatedly field candidates facing corruption charges, people even vote for them. Analysis of Affidavits filed by Lok Sabha candidates shows that in 2004 general elections, a total of 12 candidates...

-The Hindustan Times     An analysis of candidates fielded by Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for 2014 Lok Sabha elections shows that they continue to give tickets to candidates with serious criminal cases, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) have found. ADR and NEW analysed the background details of 188 out of 301 candidates announced by these major parties till March 8, 2014 who have declared serious...