-The Times of India CHENNAI: One of the three convicts on death row for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, AG Perarivalan, will on Monday be on a videoconference with Central Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra on a complaint against Rashtrapati Bhavan and the ministry of home affairs on a petition seeking to know why his mercy plea was rejected in August 2011. A notification on the videoconference was fixed three days ago...

The recent Supreme Court judgment dismissing pharma giant Novartis’ claim for patent protections in India for its award-winning and prohibitively priced anti-leukemia drug Glivec has renewed the focus on accessibly-priced drugs – in particular the failure of the Indian public healthcare system and health policy to ensure affordable drugs for all. Studies show that as much as 70% of health spending in India comes from out-of-pocket payments, with 50-80% of...

-The Times of India NAGPUR: After voting rights if there has been any other weapon which has empowered an Indian citizen it is the Right to Information (RTI). RTI is used to seek information about matters which affect the aamadami. How much of information is being handed out is still a contentious issue, but the act has definitely created a battalion of social activists. An RTI activist is not exactly the harried...

-Deccan Herald With just a little more than a year left before the nation goes to polls, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government has proposed to raise the allocation for rural development to Rs 80194 crore in 2013-14, although an amount of about Rs 21371 crore is estimated to be left unspent from the fund earmarked for the sector this year. The Ministry of Rural Development is likely to leave unutilized...

-The Hindu Concerned over the extreme left groups' penetration into tribal territories and their ability to win over the hearts and minds of people deprived of basic necessities of life, the government has drawn-up a nine point action plan to deal with a host of development challenges. The action plan is an outcome of series of meeting of a specially constituted Review Group of LWE (Left-Wing Extremism) under the aegis of...