Does long-term intake of a special form of insulin prevent diabetes and heart problems, but cause cancer? The debate has been raging in medical circles for long. Now, an international study involving 12,000 pre-diabetics settles two parts of it, but leaves the other open for further research. Results of ORIGIN (Outcome Reduction with Initial Glargine Intervention) study presented in the wee hours of Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American...

Fourteen national and international non-government organisations and academic centres have called for reforms in what they say are excessively-broad exemptions granted to the government on national security issues by the Right to Information (RTI) Act. To guide decision-making on information requests relating to national security, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), along with other groups, is in the process of formulating “guidelines” to bring about consensus on the extent of restrictions...

-Express News Service Hyderabad, New Delhi: The Andhra Pradesh High Court today quashed the 4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities carved by the Centre out of the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Madan Lokur and Justice P V Sanjay Kumar set aside the sub-quota while observing that the government’s decision was based on religious grounds and not any other consideration. The verdict may affect admissions that...

The controversy over a cartoon in an NCERT textbook sends a chill down the spine as it shows the extent to which the culture of intolerance has eaten into the vitals of our democratic polity. The cartoon in question shows B R Ambedkar sitting on a snail (Constitution) and flogging it while Jawaharlal Nehru too is brandishing a whip standing behind Ambedkar. It is clear that he is also aiming his...

Religious and social groups have trampled on the freedom of expression of artists and scholars to serve their own agendas. “FOR all the big talk about India's great tradition of cultural and religious tolerance, many forces in the social life of our country and a number of established organisations, including the so-called non-political ones, have time and again resorted to blatant suppression of freedom of expression, pointing forcefully to the...