-The Telegraph New Delhi: Last year, the invitation card was printed thrice - first with the Prime Minister's name, next without his name and finally with his name. This time, the organisers have been spared the agony of uncertainty: the card has been printed without the Prime Minister's name. Narendra Modi will be skipping the Central Information Commission's annual convention for the first time since the Right to Information Act was enacted in...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Delhi's 1,800-odd municipal schools have declared a holiday tomorrow citing predictions of "very poor" smog and the health risk it poses, but critics rued that over a million poor children would miss their midday meals. Some parents said the slum children who go to these schools would be playing on the smoggy streets anyway if classes were closed. This is the first time so many schools will close in...

-The Hindu As I write this column, my gaze is on the post-Deepavali haze that has enveloped Delhi. As a third-generation asthmatic, with a fourth-generation asthmatic daughter, it is set me wondering whether returning to Delhi, the city of my birth, from the United States a decade ago was a mistake. This haze is smog (smoke + fog), a hazardous mix of noxious gases and very high levels of suspended respirable...

-The Indian Express In its report submitted to the MEA, the panel has said that in keeping with global practices, the ministry must consider doing away with these details. New Delhi: IN VIEW of complaints, especially from women, of procedural harassment in passport offices, an inter-ministerial panel has recommended that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) should do away with the practice of printing details of a person’s father, mother or spouse...

-The Hindu Business Line The spread of rural electrification has been overestimated, and the adoption of subsidised LPG has not picked up It is little more than a year since the Sustainable Development Goals were agreed to at the UN General Assembly. SDGs are a set of 17 goals that are intended to dramatically improve lives across the world by 2030. A major goal is SDG7 which aims to ensure universal access...