-The Hindu The Union government has expressed displeasure with as many as seven Chief Ministers for their failure to commence the crucial Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) based on which beneficiaries will be ranked for various welfare schemes including the proposed legal entitlement for food. The irony is that three of them belong to the Congress, which heads the UPA government at the Centre, while another is an ally. Of the three...

Indigenous knowledge and farming practices of the region's tribal people recognised for promoting food security and conserving biodiversity Traditional farming systems in India have received a major boost at a time when Indian agriculture is struggling to come to terms with modern technologies. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has accorded the status of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) to the traditional agricultural system being practiced...

-The Times of India After registering five FIRs in National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation is now moving ahead and has arrested Former Uttar Pradesh bureaucrat P K Jain on Thursday. In another development, sources said that they are planning to book P K Jain and other accused persons in disproportionate assets case. Jain has been arrested in the case in which sacked BSP leader Babu Singh...

-The Times of India   An attempt to drag chief minister Mayawati to the Lokayukta court for allegedly granting undue favours to liquor baron Ponty Chadha fell flat on Thursday when UP's Lokayukta, Justice NK Mehrotra, declined to entertain the complaint on the grounds that the law does not authorize him to investigate the CM. The complaint against Mayawati was filed by a journalist. Mehrotra also said since Mayawati does not hold the...

A Dantewada district court yesterday granted bail to D.V.C.S. Verma, the general manager of an Essar Steel plant, who was arrested last September in a case of alleged protection pay to Maoists. The court said investigators had not been able to provide any concrete evidence against the official. Chhattisgarh police had arrested Verma based on the statement of a local contractor, B.K. Lala, who was allegedly caught red-handed while paying Rs 15...