The Press Council of India on Friday recommended amendment to election laws to declare any payment for publication of news as a corrupt practice. The PCI has also asked the Election Commission of India to set up a special cell to receive complaints about “paid news”.

It will take not five but around 20 years to make India slum free. The government on Friday admitted before the Parliament that the high-powered Deepak Parekh Committee, constituted to suggest guidelines for implementation of the ambitious Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), has recommended that the “duration of RAY should extend beyond five years to 20 years”. The government further said that based on the recommendations, the guidelines for the scheme are being revised.

Union human resources development minister Kapil Sibal on Friday stated that the government will initiate a consultation process with stakeholders from August to resolve the problems in implementing the Right to Education Act across the country.

The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court that it could not grant environmental clearance for construction of statues and memorials for dalit leaders at a park in Noida if Uttar Pradesh government does not take measures for the area’s ecological restoration.

In view of the resolution passed by some advocates’ associations in the country prohibiting their members form appearing for any accused facing trial in a terror case, the top court on Friday directed the state bar councils to take appropriate action against such lawyers’ bodies.

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered CBI investigation in the Hari Masjid firing in Mumbai in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition, which had led to communal riots in the city.

The Army has ordered a Court of Inquiry that will probe the alleged breach of cyber communication norms (for armed forces personnel) by a Major posted in the Andamans, who was being probed earlier for alleged transfer of information from his computer to a computer in Pakistan. Army sources, however, said on Friday that the

The Bofors 155 mm artillery towed gun has lost out yet again in India. In a setback to the Army’s modernisation programme, the ministry of defence (MoD) has cancelled the entire “request for proposal” (RFP) process for acquisition of 155 mm towed artillery guns and has initiated a fresh “request for information” (RFI), defence sources have said.

A day after he told Parliamentarians that the Naxal problem can be overcome within three years, home minister P. Chidambaram said that the timeline of three years was meant to “dispel the notion that it is a matter of weeks or months”.

Terming the situation in Jammu and Kashmir as “not yet normal”, Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said efforts are on to hold a “quiet dialogue” with all shades of opinion in the Valley. He said there are no reservations within the government on “talking to our own people”.