-The Hindu Rohtak: Even as the government scrambles to assuage angry crowds protesting against the gang-rape of a girl in New Delhi, it continues to sit on a draft scheme submitted by the National Commission for Women (NCW) in 2010 that seeks to provide financial assistance and support services to rape victims. The scheme, which has also been circulated to the States for them to implement on their own, is bogged down...

-The Economic Times The results of the UN climate-change conference that closed in Doha, Qatar, last Saturday show once again that the international negotiations are progressing, albeit slowly. At the heart of these negotiations is the most challenging energy transformation the world has ever seen. Past energy transitions have taken a long time to unfold. Firewood was not displaced by coal until the 18th century. It took one century for oil to...

-The Times of India The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday rapped petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily for having violated the model code of conduct with his poll-eve announcement of plans to increase LPG subsidy cap from six to nine cylinders a year. Expressing its strong disapproval of the announcement made on Tuesday - adjudged by the poll watchdog as promise of a financial grant - the EC cautioned Moily to be...

-The Indian Express Shimla: In a landmark judgement having wider implications on government-funded NGOs and organisations run on public contributions, the State Information Commission (SIC) on Friday ruled that all “substantially” financed NGOs (receiving over Rs 1 crore from state or government Grants) are public authority under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and must make their annual ‘income and expenditures’ public. In the Commission’s order, passed by a two-member bench of...

-The Hindustan Times The direct cash transfer in 42 schemes to start from next year is old wine in new bottle with beneficiaries under these schemes already receiving money directly into their bank accounts. Finance minister P Chidambaram and rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday announced that money under these 42 schemes of the central government would be transferred directly into bank accounts of beneficiaries in 51 districts from next January. The list...