Taking note of the report that 86 per cent of the oral cancer in India was caused by tobacco products, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the plea of various gutka, pan masala and chewing tobacco manufacturing companies for postponement of the December 7, 2010 order banning the use of plastic as packaging material for their products from March 1 this year. A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly...

Amartya Sen today said primary healthcare should be more accessible to people and sought the public sector’s support in healthcare. “I strongly say yes to right to health,” the Noble laureate said after formally announcing the launch of Pratichi (India) Institute in Salt Lake. The economist, who has been conducting research and development work in the fields of education, health and gender equality for the past 10 years, said Pratichi Trust, which...

The state government and private School administrations in the state are at loggerheads with the government reiterating its stand to implement the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2010 strictly in Bihar. As many as 15 Schools belonging to the Association of Heads of Christian Schools (AHCS) which includes Don Bosco Academy, St Karen's High Schools, St Xavier's School, Christ Church School, St Dominique Savio, Notre Dame Academy, St Joseph's Convent,...

Nearly 110 students of different classes packed in the hostel for tribals which has a capacity of only 75 are living in inhuman conditions and are facing food, accommodation and sanitation problems. Chandrakant Pandey, organiser of Vidarbha unit of Council for Human Rights, has sought the attention of the people's representatives towards the pathetic condition of the hostel being run by Integrated Tribal Development Corporation, Deori. This correspondent found during...

Corruption and inflation, the bugbears of UPA-2, dominated discussions Congress functionaries held with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee amid expectations from the party that a populist Budget would help check the negative tide against the Centre. Party leaders are hoping specifically for income tax relief for the middle class and concessions for rural populace as the budgetary antidote to the negativity post-2G spectrum scam. Mukherjee assured his party that prices would come down...