Gujral uses it, but is Memory Plus safe?
Memory Plus, the drug that the PM regularly takes to vitalise brain cells, has become a subject of heated debate between India's top scientific and medical institutes.
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Responsive govt key to better administration: Gujral
Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral said on Saturday that a ''responsive and reacting government'' was possible only if the process for a clean, decentralised and accountable administration began at the grassroot levels.
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Laloo in Delhi to stem dissent
Demoralised but defiant, Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav is in New Delhi, even as cabinet colleague Inder Singh Namdhari quit his government and Communist Party of India leader A B Bardhan reiterated the demand for his resignation.
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North-East may be rocked by a 'mega-quake'
While the energy released in the Latur earthquake (6.3 on the Richter Scale) in 1993 was equivalent to only one hydrogen bomb, the possible quake in the North-East could be as powerful as 50 hydrogen bombs.
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MAY 24

'How can we even think of a brahmin as President?'
Congress leader G Venkatswamy, who has queered the Presidential poll process, on why he does not want either Seshan or K Narayanan to become President.
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'The Constitution did not envisage the President to be a puppet. We need to re-establish that fact. And we will'
T N Seshan tells the Rediff Chat.
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'Had it been winter, you would have found the entire village dead under the debris'
Just 20 km from Jabalpur on the Jabalpur-Mandla highway, village after village is in the grip of terror.
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Hawala brokers bled India of Rs 100 billion in foreign exchange last year
According to the Enforcement Directorate, the forex seizure last year was triple that of the previous -- it leaped from Rs 30 to Rs 90 billion -- signifying an alarming rise in the illegal trade. The business, say ED officials, is monopolised by a group of migrants from India.
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Implement Goan civil code nationally, says Advani
"Law Minister Ramakant Khalap's knowledge of the Portuguese common civil code in Goa has made him qualified enough to take a bold step in this direction," the BJP chief said. The code has been effective in Goa for the last 130 years.
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'Family planning cannot be addressed in isolation'
A US-aided programme is spreading the gospel of family planning far and wide in Uttar Pradesh.
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We need to make children aware of their rights'
"Poverty forces children to begin working early in life," says International Labour Organisation coordinator Wahidur Rahman. "More than 40 per cent of Bangladeshis are below the poverty line."
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MAY 23

Quake!
The powerful earthquake that rocked Jabalpur and adjoining areas early on Thurday morning killing at least 35 people, injuring hundreds and rendering thousands homeless has once again demonstrated that the entire Narmada valley, spread over an area of 1,312 km in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, is earthquake-prone. Most of the deaths were reported from Jabalpur district.
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Kesri confident of warding off Pilot's challenge
The former internal security minister declares his bid for the Congress presidency.
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'Narayanan should be made the President'
H Hanumanthappa, MP, who resigned as secretary-general of the SC/ST Forum of Parliamentarians last week, on why the dalit vice-president should be India's next President
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AIADMK splits as Jayalalitha ousts Thirunavukkarasu
The All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, headed by former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha, split with seven of the 14 MPs casting their lot with S Thirunavukkarasu, whom the party chief had expelled on Monday.
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Strike in J&K to protest human rights violations
A state government spokesman said the Hurriyat Conference was whipping up the human rights issue when the actual number of complaints received was showing a marked decline. The Hurriyat, he pointed out, was saying nothing about militant violence which has claimed more than 5,800 lives since 1990.
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MAY 22

Dove among the Hawks
Prime Minister Gujral finds himself at odds with the IFS over talks with Pakistan.
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Sharad Yadav seeks consensus on women's quota bill
The Janata Dal working president says no whip should be issued while voting on the Women's Bill, which seeks to have 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures.
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Rao blames Rajiv and V P Singh for St Kitts episode
Former prime minister P V Narasimha told a Delhi court that the St Kitts case was a result of the political rivalry between his predecessors -- V P Singh and the late Rajiv Gandhi -- and pleaded his innocence.
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US unwilling to intervene in Kashmir
''We are a friend to Pakistan, we are a friend to India and we will use our good offices in whatever way they would like us to help them progress, but they seem fully capable of proceeding on their own at this point," State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said.
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'That Gujral is a man without a political base can be an advantage to him'
Former Union finance minister C Subramaniam assesses the challenges ahead of the prime minister as he completes one month in office.
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US pulls out stops for Bhutto to testify in Burton suit
The Clinton administration has asked Pakistan for a waiver from its official secrets act to allow the former premier to testify.
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Preparation ensures fewer casualties in Bangla cyclone
Officials in the prime minister's office said on Tuesday that only 27 people have been confirmed dead from the worst-hit areas of Chittagong and Cox's Bazar, a far cry from the 139,000 dead in a cyclone in 1991.
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What will happen to a god if I write something about him? Gods are above these things'
An interview with Malayalam novelist Paul Zachariah whose short story has upset the Church in Kerala.
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MAY 21

Taming the cops
Indrajit Gupta, India's first Communist home minister, has embarked on a major mission -- to reform and restructure the police force in the country.
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Mishra complains to Sonia against Kesri
Congress president Sitaram Kesri's supporters have urged him to initiate action against dissident leader Dr Jagannath Mishra for writing to Sonia Gandhi, complaining that the party chief was enrolling bogus party members.
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Court directs Congress to explain foreign donations by May 24
The home ministry informed the Delhi high court that if the Congress fails to furnish the information by Saturday, further action will be taken against the party, including search of the party premises and seizure of documents.
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No improvement in Indo-Pak ties until Kashmir issue is resolved: Gohar Khan
Kashmir cannot be put on the back-burner and it has to be defreezed. We cannot have it lying there because, for Pakistan, the core issue is Kashmir," says the Pakistan foreign minister.
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Greater autonomy in J&K will not end militancy: report
The report, Chargesheet on Autonomy, says that secessionist forces operating in the state do not accept the exclusion of Jammu and Kashmir from the constitutional organisation of India as a basis for settlement on Kashmir.
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Smuggling along Indo-Nepalese border costs Indian kitty Rs 130 billion
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has monitored the flourishing nefarious activities -- mainly in electronic gadgets, computer floppies, automobile spare-parts, gold and narcotics -- in the border area for the past 14 months.
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Brain drain no cause for alarm, claim defence researchers
The 3 per cent loss of talent every year is not significant assures the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
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Delhi high court upset with govt stand on Massey incident
The judges were sceptical about the Delhi police's claim that Martin Massey suffered injuries while falling down from his scooter and that there were eyewitness accounts to substantiate this.
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'For all we know, someone could have dreamt up Jesus'
Malayalam novelist Paul Zachariah's short story upsets the Church in Kerala.
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MAY 20

Ordeal for justice
Relatives of the nearly 3,000 people murdered in fake encounters at the height of militancy in Punjab will have to wait for another decade to get the compensation that the government has promised.
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Full disclosure mandatory for all corporate entities, including multinationals
Says Justice P B Sawant, chairman of the Press Council, "The Indian people at large, in such a situation, have a right to know what's going on in the private sector."
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Animal dissections to be made optional in schools
Counsel Raj Panjwani, appearing for the petitioners which included Maneka Gandhi, contended that ''needless and unnecessary'' experiments on animals in schools were not only cruel to animals but also to students, whose right to conscience was violated by the forced dissections.
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One year in office and Karunanidhi badly needs to put more pluses in the ledger
Communal violence in the western districts, resumed caste clashes in the south, strained relations with its electoral ally and the narrowest of wins in the sole by-election held in this period -- not exactly the kind of milestones that give the DMK government in Madras much to cheer about.
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Shombu Mitra, colossus of Indian theatre, dead
He lived an austere life and, his last wishes recorded in a court paper, ensured that his body be neither kept at Rabindra Sadan -- the tradition for doyens of the Bengal art world -- for public homage nor taken to the crematorium winding through the thoroughfares in procession.
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Andhra constable hounded by superiors for writing novel
Khakila bathukulu (Plight of policemen) is the work that set off the storm. And in precis, the 805-page book draws on the experiences of his own father, retired head constable Prakash Rao, to paint a picture of life as an ordinary policeman.
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'We are prepared to die,' claim religious zealots in Pakistan
Militants are at the centre of a new wave of violence that some officials believe could threaten the stability of this Muslim country.
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