-The Times of India India won't enhance its pledge of reducing emissions intensity of its economy at the Doha round of climate talks, which will be held between November 26 and December 7. The Cabinet on Thursday cleared the red-lines for Union environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan and her team of negotiators for the UN talks. With the European Union (EU) shifting the goal post yet again for ratifying the Kyoto Protocol's second phase...

-The Telegraph Srinagar: If appetite for capital punishment has been whetted in the country, Padshah Begum’s experience today should serve as a timely note of caution. The 60-year-old lady in Srinagar received word this afternoon that Delhi High Court has taken her son off death row because “serious lapses” marked the police investigation into a blast in the capital in 1996. She is no stranger to such news: two years ago, her eldest...

-The Economic Times The government must decontrol sugar, lift curbs on trade in molasses and allow proper markets to function in this sector. Ill-informed would-be saviours of farmers like Gen V K Singh oppose the move. They only serve to fatten liquor barons like the late Ponty Chadha and depress farm incomes. As an article by Nidhi Nath Srinivas (ET, November 22) points out, wily politicians use control to make the sugar...

-The Economic Times The appointment of the third education commission headed by leading sociologist Andre Beiteille to undertake a major policy review appears to be held up after the Prime Minister's Office raised concerns over including a naturalised US citizen as a member. The human resource development ministry had named Pranab Bardhan, a professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, as a member of the commission. Bardhan is a...

-Outlook The government today cleared the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy that will bring 348 essential drugs under price control, leading to reduction in prices. "The National Pharmaceutical Pricing policy has been approved by the Cabinet with an objective to put in place a regulatory FRAmework for pricing of drugs to ensure their availability at reasonable prices," an official source said. At present, the government through the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) controls prices...