-The Telegraph New Delhi: Heat trapped by tarred roads and dense clusters of buildings may have added nearly 2 degrees to temperatures in the world's most populated cities, including Calcutta, Delhi and Mumbai, over and above the effects of global warming, researchers said today. Their study, described as the first to quantify the combined impacts of global warming and the "urban heat island effect", suggests that the overheated cities will face double...

-Livemint.com A detailed look at Labour Bureau’s Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) methodology and design suggests that one shouldn’t read too much in these numbers New Delhi: Opposition parties and many commentators have been citing the Labour Bureau’s Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) numbers to attack the government over failure to generate employment). How credible are such claims? A detailed look at QES methodology and design suggests that one shouldn’t read too much in...

-The Hindu Liberalisation has eroded the institutional capacity to train young people who might pursue liberal values The other day, a student asked me what exactly the word ‘liberal’ mean. She wanted to know whether ‘liberalisation’ promotes ‘liberal’ values. She had noticed that institutions of higher education, which are supposed to promote liberal values, were finding it difficult to resist ideological and commercial pressures triggered by the process of economic liberalisation. So,...

-PTI Allahabad: Guests in Kanjasa may not have a cakewalk in selecting which birthday party to attend on January 1. One in five persons will be blowing out candles the same day, thanks to a technical goof-up that has caused their new Aadhaar cards to mention January 1 as their official date of birth. Flooded with complaints from residents of the village near Allahabad that their cards do not mention the actual dates...

-NDTV During arguments in court, Former coal secretary HC Gupta had claimed that then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had given the "final approval" in the case. New Delhi: A judgment which convicted three former coal ministry officials for corruption in one of the cases related to the coal scam on Friday has also given a huge relief to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was in charge of the coal ministry...