-The Indian Express  Attributing "sensationalism" over the CAG's presumptive loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore for the "killing" of the telecom sector, the government on Friday said it plans to auction by March-end the circles that were not taken in the flopped sale of mobile phone spectrum this week. It also rejected Opposition allegations that government was celebrating the failure of the auction and said notwithstanding the poor response, it will...

-The Times of India Denials notwithstanding, the government indeed has been considering the idea of turning the Comptroller and Auditor General into a multi-member body as minister of state in Prime Minister's Office V Narayanaswamy said last week. Although the government had dropped the idea of turning the CAG into a multi-member body, agreeing with the federal auditor that the existing structure with a singular head was fine, it dusted off the...

-Deccan Herald A 15-year-old girl from Siwan, Bihar, was admitted in critical condition to the burns unit of Safdarjung hospital, after a classmate threw acid on her leading to complete blindness in one eye, burnt face, and breathing, speaking and hearing impairment. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has asked the Bihar government to release immediate financial assistance for the child’s treatment.  Tuba Tabassum, a class-X student, left for tuition...

-Frontline There are no effective vaccines against Japanese encephalitis, but its spread can be controlled in India through vector management.  JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS, or JE, has become endemic in many parts of the country, occurring repeatedly in epidemic form in many of them—for instance, in parts of Gorakhpur in northern Uttar Pradesh. One can expect JE-type epidemics year after year in States where prolonged drought-like conditions are followed by heavy monsoons. This leads to...

-Outlook Only six states in the country, including Maharashtra and Kerala, are likely to achieve the Millenium Development Goal (MDG) on reducing child mortality by 2015, a report said today. Except Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal, other parts of the country are unlikely to achieve MDG 4, which aims to reduce Under-Five Mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015, unless some key issues are addressed, These observations were...