-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Left and the Trinamul Congress have both promised to oppose the passage of the pension reform bill that the government plans to push with the BJP's support. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) bill was listed for passage in the Lok Sabha today but was stalled because of protests over various issues. One of them was the fuel price hike, which found Trinamul and the...

-PTI KOLKATA: A lamp which produces high quality light and doubles up as a device to cook food without causing pollution has been invented by a team of engineers in Maharashtra. Suitable particularly for rural households which lack clean cooking fuel and electricity, the device, aptly named Lanstove (lantern combined with cook stove), has been developed by researchers from Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in Maharashtra's Phaltan. IIT graduate Anil Rajvanshi, who led...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The cabinet gave its nod today to two policies aimed at providing employment and housing to the urban poor. Under the National Urban Livelihood Mission, the government has set aside Rs 6,505 crore to spend on generating employment for the urban poor till 2017. Also, Rs 35,810 crore would be used under the Rajiv Awas Yojana to make housing available to the urban poor by the year 2022. The...

-The Hindu Bangalore: Akshara Dasoha cooks and helpers engaged in the preparation of midday meals in various schools across the State staged a protest at Banappa Park here on Tuesday. General secretary of the Karnataka Rajya Samyukta Akshara Dasoha Karmikara Sangha D. Nagalakshmi said that while the head cooks were given just Rs. 1,100 per month, the helpers were given Rs. 1,000. The workers resorted to the protest after their repeated requests to...

-Down to Earth Open defecation along the Gandak in Uttar Pradesh causes the disease in Bihar, says study Bihar all set to check encephalitis Open defecation along the Gandak in Uttar Pradesh causes the disease in Bihar, says study TIRED of failures by researchers to identify the virus that causes acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), the Bihar government, along with Unicef and the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRI), has sent...