-The Telegraph Human rights groups today claimed New Delhi had a role in allowing ex-army officer Avtar Singh to escape the country as a free trial could have allegedly unravelled the involvement of people at the “highest level” in various murders in Jammu and Kashmir. The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS), which includes several rights groups, today pressed for an impartial probe into the “institutional support and circumstances under...

-IANS Global warming is diminishing the Chhota Shigri glacier in the Pir Panjal ranges of Himachal at 0.67 metres a year, report French and Indian researchers.  The study, jointly supported by the department of science and technology, India's space agency ISRO and the Indo-French Centre for Promotion of Advanced Research, concluded that the glacier mass was thinning more rapidly this century.  The researchers, including those from New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University and glaciologists...

Contending that the NCERT textbook on political science did not represent the views or prejudices of one or two authors, Yogendra Yadav, who was chief adviser to the NCERT on the subject, said the book was developed by a large team of political scientists, teachers and educationists. “Given the very sensitive nature of the book, the entire text was shown to three eminent historians of contemporary India — Professor Sunil Khilnani,...

CHENNAI: Government officials in Tamil Nadu can now sit in their air-conditioned offices and keep tabs on clogged up water bodies and channels in remote villages using satellite technology. Criticized by many for corruption and inefficiency, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has been given a scientific make-over in the state with GIS (geographic information system) mapping being used to organize the works as well as to...

Concern for public health goes up in smoke   India's leading cigarette manufacturer, ITC Ltd, made financial contributions of Rs. 6.78 crore in the last two years to all major political parties in the country, causing public health activists here to question the possible interference of tobacco companies “in the Central government's efforts to bring in tougher anti-tobacco laws in the country.” Figures disclosed by ITC Ltd — and released recently by activists...