-The Hindustan Times Environmentalists have been telling us about the presence of DDT residues in human milk and even traces of it in the blood of penguins. This tells us how widespread the use and abuse of this chemical is, but it took us more than 40 years to realise that DDT is a harmful persistent organic pollutant. While the effort is to phase out the harmful chemical, I am worried about the...

-The Hindu Over 260 houses torched, police arrest 90 persons Three colonies of Dalits (of the Adi-Dravida community) near Naikkankottai in Dharmapuri district of western Tamil Nadu remained benumbed on Thursday by the fury unleashed on them by a rampaging mob of caste Hindus on Wednesday. As many as 268 dwellings – huts, tiled-roof and one or two-room concrete houses–were torched by the mob after a caste Hindu man, Nagarajan, committed suicide over...

-Live Mint Flexible labour laws in India cannot solve the problem of weak job growth and the poor quality of employment  The theme of the World Bank’s World Development Report this year is, appropriately enough, jobs. The report recognizes that creating jobs is the surest way of reducing inequality and poverty, particularly in the developing world. But the cliché it offers as a solution is disappointing: relax labour laws. The bank has...

-The Times of India NAGPUR: Giving privilege to the right to privacy, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court ruled that personal information, which serves no public interest, can't be disclosed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. Allowing the writ petition (WP NO. 2157/2012) filed by Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company (Mahatransco) Limited, which challenged the order of state information commissioner, Justice Vasanati Naik held that such non-disclosure of personal...

-The Hindu ‘Though bound by legal assistance treaty, Malaysia is holding out on information’ The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that a politically and economically powerful person in Malaysia was stalling the probe into the foreign angle in the Aircel-Maxis case involving the former Union Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, and others. Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, told a Bench of Justices G.S....