-The Hindu     Cites "high risk" of occurrence of avian influenza after monsoon as in the past The Centre has alerted States on post-monsoon outbreak of highly contagious avian influenza or bird flu, which has the potential to be transmitted from birds and poultry to human beings (zoonotic risk). In an advisory to the governments, the Centre said that as in the past there was a "high risk" of occurrence of avian influenza after...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: For the longest time, most calls that came to Childline would be from a kid on a railway platform asking for help after a brutal police beating or desperately looking for shelter. But the decline of public call offices (PCOs) across the country have led to a sharp drop in calls from marginalized children to India's first toll-free helpline for children in distress. The decline...

-PTI CAG today slammed the HRD Ministry for the shortcomings in the Aakash tablet project, raising questions over "arbitrary" selection of IIT, Rajasthan to launch the scheme without carrying out an assessment of its capacity to undertake the work. In its report tabled in Parliament, the government auditor observed that IITR had told the Ministry that around 90 per cent of the tablets supplied by Datawind between August and November 2011 were...

-The Hindu     Questioning a technology, especially of the kind that has serious unknowns and lacks clear social benefits, is not an attack on science Jairam Ramesh, former Environment Minister for India, made the brave decision in 2010 to tell his then apex regulator of genetically modified organisms (GEAC) that it had failed to properly use available science to determine the safety - to human health and the environment - of Bt brinjal,...

-The Business Standard FSSAI will put the draft guidelines in front of a seven-member expert committee Mumbai: In what would alter the consumption pattern of products such as burgers, pizzas, sandwiches, snack foods and soft drinks in schools, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is putting in place final guidelines to determine what counts as healthy food in educational institutions. The guidelines, to be released by December this year, would...