-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked the Centre and states to pay employees with hearing impairment the same monthly transport allowance they have been paying the visually and physically challenged, saying the law didn't allow "discrimination" based on disabilities. The court's human touch came on a plea by the Deaf Employees Welfare Association, which said that except for Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, no other state was extending them the...

-The Times of India Gujarat's much-touted Chiranjeevi Yojana, launched in 2006 to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates in BPL households, has not had any significant impact, says a new study by Duke University. The programme, which subsidizes the cost of delivery at designated private sector hospitals, has not led to increased probability of institutional child-delivery. Also, analyses of household expenditure of women who used the subsidized delivery scheme in private hospitals...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: Its trams might be the slowest mode of commuting, but when it comes to public transport, Kolkata is regarded the most progressive city in the country, according to a new study. The study of 84 cities across the world titled 'Future of Urban Mobility 2.0', ranks Kolkata at 31-highest among the six cities studied in India. While Mumbai (41) comes second, Chennai (54) comes third followed by...

-The Business Standard Oil minister says Parikh report sound but government has to take realities into account; to proceed with Direct Benefits Transfer in 291 districts from January despite SC order Union petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily said there'd be no raising of the present cap on the number of subsidised cooking gas (LPG) cylinders a household was entitled to in a year. In the wake of severe electoral reverses for the ruling...

-The Hindu India has the largest programme, catering to over 114 million children A global report by the World Food Project (WFP) for 2013 on 169 countries has said that India has the largest school feeding programme in the world, catering to over 114 million children, but stands 12thamong 35 lower-middle-income countries covering 79 per cent of its total number of school-going children. The report titled "State of School Feeding Worldwide, 2013" draws...