-The Times of India Come July and you will have cash equivalent to your cooking gas subsidy in your bank account, marking the biggest shift in delivery of handouts which could help government curb leakages and reduce the strain on public finances. The switch is part of the ambitious three-phase deadline set by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to make the "kind-to-cash" transition based on the Aadhaar numbers. At a meeting chaired by Pulok...

-Outlook Taking exception to Calcutta High Court's order refusing to give notice to Mamata Banerjee on appointment of Dr Sukumar Mukherjee as chief health advisor to the state government, the Supreme Court today issued notice to the West Bengal Chief Minister. A bench of justices R M Lodha and A R Dave issued notice to Banerjee seeking her reply on why she should not be made party in the case challenging the...

-The Hindustan Times Even after more than two decades of India's Look East policy, a UN study has put Mumbai and Delhi much below Asian cities such as Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing, Jakarta or Manila in terms of prosperity. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme has described the two Indian cities as "moderately prosperous". The new city prosperity index, released on Wednesday, has tracked each on the basis of its performance on five key...

-Reuters Abbott Laboratories Inc has instructed its sales representatives in India not to give gifts to doctors, a practice that has been used as a bargaining chip by companies wanting a piece of the country’s burgeoning healthcare market. According to an internal email dated October 11 from Sudarshan Jain, managing director of Abbott Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, the gift-giving has been temporarily suspended. “Only Abbott-approved clinical/scientific literature may be distributed to current and potential...

-The Indian Express Recently, the prime minister raised concerns about RTI applications encroaching on the right to privacy. At this juncture, it may be worth remembering the case of “Auto Shankar” and his diary. About 20 years ago, an auto driver called Gauri Shankar, who had murdered more than six teenage girls, was convicted and sentenced to death. Before the appeals process was exhausted, he started writing a diary, which was...