-IPS News   New Delhi: Bhure Lal, a 33-year-old street-food vendor, has been selling his spicy ‘chaat' outside the New Delhi Railway Station for 15 years. But despite a punishing 12-hour work schedule, and a new law to protect hawkers like him, he doesn't take home enough to feed his family. More than half of Lal's weekly income from the ‘chaat', a lip-smacking pot-pourri that is particularly popular with women, is extorted by...

-Live Mint   The cost of pollution will determine effective implementation of standards It has long been suspected but never established as a comparable fact. New Delhi is a city with one of the poorest air quality in the world. New data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that in 2013 the city had a very high concentration of particulate matter of size 2.5 microns (153 micrograms/cubic metre). Thirteen of the...

-The Hindu   The Supreme Court's judgment upholding the validity of Article 21A and the Right to Education Act has gutted the operative provisions of the law While free and compulsory education for all children below the age of 14 has been a constitutional imperative for the government for the last 64 years, it is a matter of fact (and shame) that successive governments have not achieved this yet. The most concerted effort...

-The Hindustan Times   New Delhi: The Capital's pollution watchdog has asked Bisleri's packaged drinking water manufacturing plant in west Delhi to shut shop immediately. The reason: The plant has been drawing 3.31 lakh litres of groundwater every day without requisite approval. This quantity of water is sufficient to meet the daily requirements of 2,500 people. Illegal drawing of groundwater is a big menace. Census 2011 reveals that Delhi has about 4.5 lakh...

-BBC   Delhi: A record number of people have taken part in India's general election, now in its home stretch with just one round of voting left before results are announced on 16 May. Part of the reason for the increase in turnout in the five-week-long polls, which began on 7 April, can be attributed to the Election Commission for successfully encouraging more women and low-caste Indians to vote. But many remain excluded. Because Indians...