-Scroll.in A draft notification on the Central Ground Water Authority’s website seems to relax the rules laid out in 2015. The Central Ground Water Authority has drafted new guidelines to regulate the use of groundwater across the country. If these get approved, water-guzzling industries such as packaged drinking water and paper manufacturers could be allowed to drill for water even in areas identified as facing a groundwater crisis. The draft does away...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: By October, the city's average air quality readings are likely to change as the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) will start monitoring pollution levels in 20 new locations. These include two industrial areas, Najafgarh and Okhla, and far-flung locations such as Mundka, Narela, Bawana and Dwarka. The air quality in some urban villages like Masoodpur and Dayalpur will be screened as well. Currently, data is collected from...

-Outlook Contrary to the claim by the Election Commission of India (ECI), an RTI response from Maharashtra’s Buldhana district collectorate has confirmed malfunctioning of electronic voting machine (EVM), reported IANS. According to the report, Buldhana collectorate's election department has replied to an RTI query confirming that votes of an independent candidate had gone to BJP’s lotus symbol. The “EVM fraud” happened during February 16 elections to Buldhana Zilla Parishad from Lonar, at a...

-Scroll.in The ministry says it will respond to a draft model contract that has been sent to states for comments. The Ministry for Health and Family Welfare has said that it will respond to the Niti Aayog’s draft agreement proposing the terms for privatising district hospitals across the country. As Scroll.in reported, the government policy think tank sent a letter to states in June proposing a model by which private companies...

-The Telegraph Lucknow: Implementation of the crop loan waiver that Yogi Adityanath's government had announced on April 4 faces a fresh threat of delay, this time because of poor Internet connectivity in the border regions. Adityanath had on Friday asked district administrations to collect the loan data from the banks and upload them on their websites by July 31 and then start handing out the waiver certificates. But hundreds of bank branches have...