-The Times of India NEW DELHI: You need an Aadhaar number to buy a phone SIM and open a bank account, but as people rush to enroll, some registration centres in the capital are illegally charging them hundreds of rupees for the service that is meant to be free. TOI found centres fleecing applicants in many PLAces. In the Lal Kuan area of Badarpur, South Delhi, Laxmi, who earns Rs 150-200 a...

-The Hindu The case pertains to clearance given for diversion of forest land at Saranda Forest in Jharkhand’s Singhbhum District to a mining company in violation of Forest (Conservation) Act in 2012. The Central Bureau of Investigation on September 9 conducted searches at the Chennai premises of former Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan in connection with alleged irregularities in the approval to a proposal for leasing of 56 hectare forest land to...

-The Hindu Business Line The possible gain arising out of tax compliance has come at too high a human cost ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.’ – Benjamin Disraeli After the RBI’s latest revelations — of 99 per cent of the extinguished currency having returned to the banks — media pundits and economists have wasted no time in saying that efforts to obliterate black money have failed. However,...

-The Hindu Governments must be judged on the quality and extent of the public health care they provide The deaths of more than 70 children in one hospital in Gorakhpur and 49 in Farrukhabad, both in Uttar Pradesh recently, reflect the appalling state of public health in India. However, it needs to be remembered that India’s public health care sector has been ailing for decades. According to the latest Global Burden of...

-The Hindu ‘TK Kathir’ is cultivated in accordance with organic farming methods in Ernakulam village KOCHI: A local brand of organic rice named after a farmer’s grandfather and promoted by a political leader. But there is more to ‘TK Kathir’ than just that. Grown by T.D. Robert, a relatively newly converted paddy farmer of Kanjoor village, the brand was much sought after at the recently concluded organic Onam Mela organised by the Jaiva...