-PTI NEW DELHI: In a blow to brick-kiln industry and road contractors, the National Green Tribunal has banned digging of earth across the country for making bricks and roads without prior environment clearance (EC). A bench headed by Justice P Jyothimani has directed the chief secretaries of all the states and union territories to ensure that its interim order is adhered to. "We restrain any person, company and authority to carry out any...
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Net-enabled cellphones to be distributed under MGNREGA
-PTI NEW DELHI: Net-enabled cellphones could soon be provided to 2.5 crore people under the MGNREGA scheme. The ambitious scheme to be launched ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 is aimed at enhancing tele-density in rural areas. According to the proposal, one person per family registered under MGNREGA scheme will be provided with the cellphone for which a recharge of Rs 30 per month will be provided for free for two...
More »UN panel 95% sure humans causing global warming -Vishwa Mohan & Amit Bhattacharya
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: There is more certainty than ever before that earth is warming under "human influence", said a report compiled by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warning that only "substantial and sustained reduction" of greenhouse gas emissions will limit the disaster of climate change. IPCC raised the likelihood of human activities causing global warming from "very likely" in its 2007 report to "extremely likely" -...
More »Rahul Gandhi trashes ordinance, shames government
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi on Friday announced his emergence as the new Congress boss rejecting as "complete nonsense" the ordinance to save convicted legislators from disqualification. In a powerful intervention he sealed the fate of the contentious legislation, embarrassed PM Manmohan Singh hours before his meeting with Barack Obama in Washington DC and publicly rebuked the party old guard. "I'll tell you what my opinion on the ordinance...
More »Doing a number on FSB-Ashok Kotwal, Milind Murugkar and Bharat Ramaswami
-The Financial Express In an article published in this newspaper on September 4, 2013, Surjit Bhalla takes us to task for critiquing his earlier estimates of the cost of the Food Security Bill. Bhalla asserted that subsidy expenditures would more than triple and the FSB would cost the government R3,14,000 crore annually or 3% of GDP. We argued that Bhalla was barking up the wrong tree and that the main things...
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