-PTI 'Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis' (PrEP), regular medicine would be given to HIV-negative sex workers who engage sexually with HIV-positive persons. Kolkata: One of Asia’s largest red light districts, Sonagachi will roll out an experimental project for providing HIV-preventive medicine to sex workers from next month. It will be the first such initiative in the country. The feasibility project recently received clearance from the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and Union Health Ministry and is...

-Down to Earth The rate at which informal housing is being destroyed probably far exceeds the rate at which formal housing is being constructed Troubled by the degradation of environment on and around railway tracks, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently directed Delhi government to relocate all illegal settlements along tracks in Delhi. The tribunal reasoned that the residents of these settlements practise open defecation and litter on the tracks. Housing of the...

-Economic and Political Weekly The platform known as the JAM Trinity (an acronym for Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and mobile numbers) may enable a shift from the current Public Distribution System, based on price subsidies, to the direct transfer of benefits. However, it is incorrect to argue that JAM technologies will necessarily lead to the demise of the PDS. State-level experiences of computerisation, recounted here, reveal that the same technologies can...

-The Hindu An analysis by Right to Information activists confirms that the Central Information Commission is returning requests for information at a high rate to the applicants. Twelve per cent of all second appeals and complaints received by the CIC this year were returned to the senders, with reasons for the return being made available in only a fraction of cases. As reported earlier by The Hindu, the number of cases the CIC...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: Blazing a trail through intricate government and judicial process, gritty transgender K Prithika Yashini has finally realized her dream of donning the uniform of a sub-inspector of police in Tamil Nadu police department. The Madras high court on Thursday declared that she was entitled to be appointed sub-inspector of police. Calling for creation of separate category to accommodate transgenders in employment, the judges further said: "We are...