-The Telegraph New Delhi: People infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) across India will receive free anti-HIV therapy even while their immune systems are still strong under new guidelines adopted by India's national AIDS control programme. The National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco) will provide anti-HIV therapy when the number of a class of white blood cells called CD4 drops to 500 cells per cubic mm or lower, senior Naco officials said....

-Outlook Kolkata: Opposing the blanket ban imposed on bicycles and other forms of non-motorised transport (NMT) in the city, eminent social activist Medha Patkar today said such restrictions take away the right to life of poor people. "A lot of poor people are dependent on non-motorised transport for their livelihood, such a ban in effect takes away their right to life," Patkar said at the Transport City Dialogue here through videoconferencing. She said...

-The Indian Express Patna: In September, 43,477 primary and middle school contractual teachers recruited by the Bihar government took the mandatory "competency test", which is based on the syllabi of classes 3-5. Of these, 10,614 teachers, or about 24 per cent, failed the test. The state government has recruited over 2.5 lakh contractual teachers since it launched its mega drive to fill the vacancies in 2007. These teachers get two chances to...

-Outlook New Delhi: The Centre today asked state governments to put all information related to implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Public Distribution System in public domain. It has also asked states to ensure proactive disclosure under Right to Information (RTI) Act of information on public works done by a department at block and panchayat levels. Section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005 lays down that information should be...

-NDTV Sexual harassment and sexual assault are crimes no matter when or where they occur and those responsible must be held accountable under the law. When these crimes happen at the workplace and involve a senior person abusing his authority to put a female worker under pressure, the company concerned also has an institutional legal responsibility to investigate and take action. When that workplace happens to be a magazine, newspaper or...