-PTI IT major Wipro's chairman Azim Premji today said "complete absence of decision making" in the government is the biggest concern for the country and warned that growth would suffer if prompt corrective action is not taken. "I think the biggest concerns are governance issues... complete absence of decision-making among leaders in the government...", he said when asked what he thought was the "biggest concern for the country today". If prompt corrective action...

A buzz that the world’s “seven billionth baby” will be born in Uttar Pradesh on Monday has prompted several NGOs to descend on villages of their choice near Lucknow and draw up plans to welcome some or other newborn that day with a generous dose of hoopla. One primary health centre in western Uttar Pradesh has gone a step further and predicted the baby will be born to 25-year-old Pinky Pawar,...

-The Economic Times   Crying foul over politicisation of the rural jobs scheme, Chief Minister Mayawati has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, alleging a "preconcieved agenda" of Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh. Mayawati in her letter on Friday alleged that the letter Ramesh wrote to her was leaked to the Media much before it reached her office. She slammed Ramesh for accusing the state government by making his...

Medical facilities have collapsed as encephalitis epidemic continues to rage Even as the rest of India recovers from Deepavali celebrations, residents of Poorvanchal have been marking a grim time that descends on the eastern Uttar Pradesh region each year: a time local people call the season of death. Ever since July, 470 people, mostly children, have died of viral encephalitis and its biological cousin, Japanese encephalitis — the first caused by a...

-The Hindu   The controversial decision earlier this month by the Academic Council of Delhi University to drop A.K. Ramanujan's celebrated essay on the Ramayana, Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translations from the B.A. History (Honours) course has evoked sharp protests from several historians and other scholars. Coming three years after the Hindutva student body, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), vandalised DU's History department to protest against the...