That the hole in the Earth’s ozone layer is slowly mending is considered a big victory for environmental policymakers. But in a new report, scientists say there is a downside: Its repair may contribute to global warming. It turns out that the hole led to the formation of moist, brighter-than-usual clouds that shielded the Antarctic region from the warming induced by greenhouse gas emissions over the last two decades, scientists...

गुजरे कुछ हफ्तों में भुखमरी से मौत की कम से कम दो खबरें आई हैं। एक खबर मध्यप्रदेश के जबलपुर जिले से है और दूसरी राजस्थान के चित्तौरगढ़ जिले से। राज्य दो हैं और वहां सरकार भी दो अलग-अलग पार्टियों- बीजेपी और कांग्रेस की है लेकिन दोनों ही जगह पीडित की स्थितियां बहुत कुछ मिलती जुलती हैं। दोनों ही जगह पीडित परिवार अपने गांव के सर्वाधिक दरिद्र परिवारों में से एक है लेकिन दोनों...

The government’s expectation of the rabi wheat crop making good the shortfall in drought-affected kharif season received a set-back with a lower acreage in wheat, coarse cereals and oilseeds this season. Sowing of pulses, however, is 6.2 per cent higher than last year in the corresponding period. The sowing period ends around January 15. The sowing of rabi wheat, coarse cereals and oilseeds has fallen behind last year and this does not...

Much like the tsunami waves that devastated many coastal areas five years ago, the closing weeks of 2009 saw an ill wind sweeping across many of our democratic institutions, highlighting that beneath the veneer of the nation’s aspirations towards great power status was a crumbling institutional core. To look at the fourth estate first. The preface to the Press Council of India’s “Norms of Journalistic Conduct” has a section that...

We live in the age of institutionalised corruption. From politicians to judges, from senior bureaucrats to policemen, from corporate tycoons to petty officials, everyone it seems has a price. As journalists, our profession demands that we enquire, interrogate and expose corruption. So, when a Madhu Koda is jailed we rejoice that the law has caught up with a former chief minister. When allegations against a judge lead to impeachment, we...