-Live Mint Court says legal, ethical issues involved; directs govt to monitor and regulate clinical trials of all experimental drugs  The Supreme Court directed the health ministry to monitor and regulate all clinical trials of experimental drugs in the country until further notice and observed that unregulated trials have caused “havoc”. The apex court order on Thursday revoked the power of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization under the Drugs Controller General of...

-The Times of India The Centre has set up an expert committee to determine the poverty mark to identify beneficiaries of rural development ministry's programmes. The committee, to be headed by Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen, will examine the figures of the socio-economic caste survey to decide who is below the poverty line in terms of deserving the rural welfare schemes focused on poor like Indira Awas Yojana, old-age pension and national...

-The Times of India The Supreme Court, which relentlessly strove to bring to book perpetrators of the fake encounter killings of Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram Prajapati in Gujarat, has an explosive situation on its hands as the National Human Rights Commission informed it that 191 fake encounter killings took place in the country in the last five years. Appalled by the attitude of the Manipur government in responding to over 1,500 alleged fake...

-The Hindu Geeta Devi’s neat Hindi signature is written below her photograph – a shy-looking woman with a dupatta covering her head – in an Affidavit duly notarised in Haridwar last month. Dehradun district resident Manju smiles out of the photograph on her Affidavit, where she states she is just 36 years old. According to the government of Uttarakhand, both Manju and Geeta Devi are dead. After all, both women are manual...

-The Hindu For any law to truly liberate those trapped in manual scavenging, their numbers must first be established by a comprehensive survey Everybody declares with a full heart, and in a low voice, that it is a national shame. From Manmohan Singh and Pratibha Patil to Mukesh Ambani and Aamir Khan, the last mentioned a new convert to the Dalit cause, there is no dearth of people queuing up to take...