Some of the NGOs and institutions which sponsored trips of Kiran Bedi over the past two years say they were categorically told “she flies Business class” and were not aware if she travelled Economy. They added that they took her bills at “face value”.   “We were told that she only flies Business class. We had no idea she was availing Economy class tickets,” Irene Almeida, administrator of Mumbai-based Shri Mahila Griha...

-The Telegraph   Calcutta is among six cities worldwide at “extreme risk” of facing natural hazards of climate change, including the impacts of sea level rise, but with a poor capacity to respond, says a report released today. The report on climate change vulnerability from Maplecroft, a private UK-based risk analysis company, also predicts that Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi are among 10 cities across the world that face a “high risk” of the...

Close to one lakh children below the age of five years died of diarrhoea attributable to rotavirus infection in India in 2008, accounting for 22 per cent of the total deaths reported globally that year, the latest edition of the Lancet Infectious Diseases magazine has reported. Worldwide in 2008, diarrhoea related to rotavirus infection resulted in 4,53,000 deaths in children younger than 5 years — 37 per cent of deaths attributable...

India's cabinet has approved a major new policy to develop national manufacturing. The policy aims to create a 100 million jobs in the next 10 years and allows for a series of special new zones to support manufacturing growth. At the moment, that sector only accounts for about 16% of the country's gross domestic product. That has barely changed in the last three decades and is seen as well below India's potential. It is...

-PTI   The Union cabinet today approved the recommendations of the Majithia wage boards allowing an increase in salaries and allowances that will benefit over 40,000 newspaper employees, including journalists. The revised wage will be applicable with effect from July 1, 2010, while other allowances, such as those for transport, house rent and hardship, shall be effective from the date of notification in the gazette, labour minister Mallikarjun Kharge said. The revised pay scale...