Factory official killed after death of union leader in police action In a major outbreak of industrial violence following the death of a trade union leader, a top official of a ceramic company in Yanam, a small enclave of Puducherry in Andhra Pradesh, was killed by workers at his residence here on Friday. The workers went on the rampage after their leader M.S. Murali Mohan was killed in police action outside the...

THE CHHATTISGARH Assembly will now consider an applicant’s intent before giving information under RTI. It might even refuse the application if it is convinced it has been made with mala fide intent. This clearly goes against the RTI Act, which says that an applicant requesting information shall not be required to give any reason. But can intent be ascertained without asking the reason? The Assembly enforced this rule last month by...

The Centre is irked by the lackadaisical attitude of Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka and Goa in notifying rules under the Right to Education act even two years after its enforcement. The Union HRD ministry has decided to tick off the states for the delay in notifying the rules, key to implementing the RTE law that provides for free and compulsory education to children between six and 14 years. Kapil Sibal will next week...

Questionable drug trials on mentally challenged persons by doctors in Indore emphasise the need for strict enforcement of medical ethics. IN what appears to be a page out of Robin Cook's medical thriller, government and private doctors in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, reportedly carried out clinical trials of various medicines on some 233 patients who had gone to them seeking psychiatric treatment. As in Cook's famous book Coma, in which a medical...

The hunger and malnutrition situation in the country has shown marginal improvement, according to the HUNGaMA report. ONE area that has always bothered policymakers in a growth-obsessed economy is the state of the social sector, in particular figures indicating the numbers of people going hungry or are homeless and children who are out of school, the poor nutritional status of women and children, and the high infant and maternal mortality rates....