-The Hindu Could the Uttarakhand tragedy have been avoided, or at least minimised? There is no simple answer. Environmentalists describe the death and damage as a man-made disaster while geologists say the extent of destruction could have been far lesser if stricter regulations had been put in place and the authorities equipped to deal with the situation. Importantly, the events focus attention on the debate on the December 18, 2012 notification of the...

-The Hindu There has been no public debate on the level of watch citizens can be put through, and on what the red lines should be while using intrusive mechanisms The tussle between government agencies' need for a better, faster and real-time interception, surveillance and monitoring mechanism through the Central Monitoring System (CMS), on the one hand, and demands by privacy, civil rights and free speech activists, for ensuring higher privacy for...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The poor in rural areas spend only Rs 17 per day while those living in cities and towns spend Rs 23 a day, a government survey has revealed. The bottom 5% of the population had an average monthly per capita expenditure of Rs 521.44 in rural areas and Rs 700.50 in urban areas, according to National Sample Survey (NSS) data for 2011-12 (July-June). The top 5% of...

-The Telegraph A set of numbers, portents of atmospheric changes in the skies over India, had told meteorologist Om Prakash Singh something rare was going to happen over northwest India. It was Thursday, June 13, and a supercomputer that routinely crunches out five-day forecasts had consistently predicted a confluence of two weather systems, likely to take place by the weekend and deliver copious rainfall. As Singh and his colleagues at the India Meteorological...

-PTI Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Information Commission has issued notice to the Lokayukta office for not providing information under the Right to Information Act on the plea that that it was not in the ambit of the Act. Hearing an application moved by RTI activist Saleem Beg, Chief Information Commissioner Ranjeet Singh Pankaj issued a notice asking why the public information officer of Lokayukta should not be punished under section 20 of the...