-The Hindu In the absence of safety gear, silica mine workers suffer the worst consequences Shankargarh, a block along the south-western fringes of Allahabad district in Uttar Pradesh, is widely known as a large supplier of silica sand to the glass industry. The area is rocky and unfit for cultivation, leaving its major inhabitants- the Kol tribe, and Chamar and Kumbi castes little option but to engage in stone quarrying and sand...

-Outlook Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due next year, the UPA government has finalised a draft Bill for providing homes to the homeless in rural areas. The draft of the National Right to Homestead Bill, 2013, prepared by the Rural Development ministry, is almost ready for inter-ministerial consultation, official sources said today According to the eleventh plan document, an estimated 13 to 18 million families in rural India are landless, of which...

-Outlook Taking note of a sting operation that alleged money laundering by three leading private sector lenders, the Finance Ministry today said that it has asked banks for more details on the issue. "RBI has contacted the banks invloved...We have asked banks for more details on the expose," Banking Secretary Rajiv Takru said here. Meanwhile, RBI Deputy Governor Urjit Patel in Mumbai said the central bank is in touch with the concerned banks...

-The Telegraph An expert panel has suggested three ways of comparing students’ marks across 26 Class XII boards for admission to about 40 central institutions, amid indications that a percentile-based matching may be approved. One of the other options is based on the calculation of a board’s mean score, and the third on the determination of the mean as well as the standard deviation (a statistical concept), sources told this newspaper. They added...

-The Times of India Every month, the Delhi government spends Rs 20 crore of taxpayers' money to provide security to 436 persons, who do not hold any constitutional post and 29 of whom face criminal case, the Supreme Court was informed on Wednesday. The annual tab comes to Rs 240 crore. As against this, the government spends just a little over Rs 3 crore a month to protect the President and Rashtrapati...