-The Hindu The Indian Radiological and Imaging Association (IRIA) has called the recent order of the Union Health & Family Welfare Ministry restricting radiologists/sonologists from visiting more than two clinics within a district to perform ultrasound tests and making it mandatory to specify their consulting hours at each clinic as “unconstitutional, undemocratic and ill-thought”. At a Press conference here on Thursday, IRIA president Harsh Mahajan said: “This latest order will create a...

-The Hindu Association’s decision is in protest against lack of clarity in RTE implementation As many as 1,800 schools are likely to remain closed from Monday as the Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association (KUSMA) has decided to go ahead with its weeklong bandh. Despite a dialogue scheduled for Monday with the State government, the association has taken the decision as a mark of protest against the lack of clarity in the implementation of...

-Live Mint Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has rebuked an industry lobby for selectively using his recent comments on genetically modified cotton “to its advantage.” Ramesh said in a seminar on 12 June that there was a structural shift in India’s cotton economy and a comprehensive study was necessary to understand the relative roles of better irrigation, weather and the availability of different cotton varieties to understand how India had gone on...

The ASCI report says there is ample evidence of “market dominance” in specific media markets, but the government has ignored the report for three years. A ministry official tells PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA that it is unlikely to be implemented. A report prepared by an independent institution recommending imposition of cross-media ownership restrictions recently entered the public domain nearly three years after it was submitted,  following a rebuke to the government by...

Weather conditions promoting El Nino persistent, says Met department; drought feared In its first monsoon forecast in late April, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had announced that monsoons would be normal this year and there was a little chance of El Nino—associated with dry spells west of the Pacific—arriving in the second half of the season. But of late, IMD seems to have shifted its stand. Now the weather agency is...