-The Telegraph At least 50 people have died in rain-triggered landslides, house collapses and flash floods in the north, mostly in Uttarakhand that has halted the popular Badrinath pilgrimage with around 30,000 pilgrims, many from Bengal, stranded. Three days of incessant rain have sent into spate Uttarakhand rivers that have burst banks and washed away houses - one of them a four-storey structure that had been vacated, apart from a temple. At least...

-IPS News ROME: Jassiben, a self-employed potter from Nana Shahpur village in western India, loves summer despite the heat waves and frequent power cuts, because summer days always mean great business. "Poor people like us do not have refrigerators, so they store drinking water in the earthen pots that keep the water cool," says Jassiben, who uses only one name. "This year, the demand has been so high, I am selling at least...

-The Business Standard Not so efficiently or transparently but there is progress and hope, besides showcasing likely problems with the Centre's own law Mahasamund (Chhattisgarh): The UPA government at the Centre has been mulling hard on ways to enact its Food Security Bill, even as the Chhattisgarh government has completed six months of enacting a like law, one providing 35 kg of rice a month at Rs 2 a kg to all...

-Economic and Political Weekly   A report on the 2013 deliberation of the Kolkata Group at its 10th workshop which focused on healthcare, the status of women and social justice in India. A K Shiva Kumar (akshivakumar@gmail.com) is convener of the Kolkata Group workshops which are organised by Pratichi (India) Trust, the Harvard Global Equity Initiative and UNICEF India. At the 10th annual Kolkata Group workshop in February this year, 40 policymakers, development practitioners,...

-The Business Standard The tussle between the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) and Ranbaxy is likely to hit the plans of Indian pharmaceutical companies of making it big in the US generic drugs market. Apart from the fact that their image may take a beating, the additional scrutiny on abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) from India would lead to more delays in drug approvals. Last week, Ranbaxy had agreed to...