उद्योगपतियों से लेकर प्रधानमंत्री तक एक ना एक रुप में वन और पर्यावरण मंत्रालय की आलोचना करते हैं कि वह ग्रीन-क्लीयरेंस के नाम पर औद्योगिक विकास और बुनियादी ढांचे के निर्माण के काम को रोक देता है। लेकिन बीते पाँच सालों में इस मंत्रालय ने जो निर्णय लिए हैं , उसके अध्ययन के आधार पर पर्यावरण के मुद्दे पर काम करने वाली एक संस्था के निष्कर्ष कुछ और ही इशारा करते हैं। संस्था की रिपोर्ट(देखें...

The Central budget of 2010-11 is a further step in the realisation of a vision of India vibrant with the income, wealth, saving, education and the entrepreneurial energy of the top 5-10 per cent of the population and the rest of Indians, serving that minority and surviving as barely literate, malnourished multitude.  With the accession of Rajiv Gandhi to power, a vision began to germinate. That vision was that of...

One nabbed at traffic junction, the other at the bus-stand on her way home Even as it has launched a campaign to eradicate beggary in the State, the State Social Welfare Department has kept in wrongful custody at least two persons who are not beggars — a seven-year-old child and a flood victim from Kurdi village in Raichur district — at the Beggars’ Rehabilitation Centre at Sumanahalli on Magadi Road. This...

A recent survey carried out by the TNUEF brings to light details of the discrimination Dalits in Madurai have faced for generations. OVER seven decades have rolled by since the freedom fighter A. Vaidhyanatha Iyer successfully led Dalits into the Meenakshi temple in Madurai, overcoming all the impediments posed by the casteist forces that were hell-bent on thwarting the historic event. But the stark reality is that “hidden apartheid” against...

Rattled by the spate of honour killings in northern states, the UPA government is preparing a legislative route to amend Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provide a deterrent punishment against khap panchayats, which order death penalty to young couples who marry defying caste barrier. "We are seriously considering amending Indian Penal Code to make honour killing a separate and distinct offence and provide deterrent punishment," a top home ministry source...