-The Economic Times 'Bharat' is not going to be 'swachh' anytime soon despite the ambitious programme launched by the Narendra Modi government to clean the country. Next year India will send its SECond rocket to the Moon but when it comes to pollution, India is alarmingly filthy even by the standards of poor countries, writes The Economist magazine. India's air and water are heavily polluted causing not only a large number of...

-The Hindu 'Will take up their genuine demands with govt.’ The BJP’s Kisan Morcha has invited farmers’ groups across the country for a dialogue on rural distress after several marches and agitations by them in the last year or so, with Morcha chief Virendra Singh Mast conceding that loan waivers were a “temporary solution” to what ails the farm SECtor. At a press conference in New Delhi, Mr. Mast said: “I had invited...

-The Indian Express New education report: Muslims, disabled most under-represented. While the proportion of upper-caste students in higher education institutions is still considerably higher than their share in the population, for the first time ever their “erstwhile near-monopoly” is being eroded with their percentage share falling to below 50 per cent over the last few years, according to a study. Advertising All other groups, women, Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Castes (SC), and...

-The Hindu Home Ministry approves Rs. 131.16 crore to landslip-affected Nagaland, Rs. 539.52 crore to Andhra Pradesh for Cyclone Titli A High Level Committee, headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Thursday approved the additional assistance of Rs. 3048.39 crore to Kerala, Rs. 131.16 crore to Nagaland and Rs. 539.52 crore to Andhra Pradesh, a Home Ministry spokesperson said. The Kerala government had sought Rs. 4,700 crore as compensation from the Central government for...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Exhorting the government to take necessary steps to formulate statistics pertaining to construction workers, domestic workers and women workers in the unorganised SECtor, the Central Information Commission has recommended the ministry of labour and employment carry out the exercise in line with provisions meant to promote “transparency, accountability and conformity” in the RTI Act. Then Information Commissioner, M Sridhar Acharyulu (who retired on November 21), in...