-The Times of India CHENNAI: After years of delay, marked by technical glitches and protests, the Kudankulam nuclear power plant at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli, south Tamil Nadu is finally a reality. At 2.45am on Tuesday, nearly 160MW produced by unit 1 of the plant was connected to the southern grid. The significant synchronization process came as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wound up his visit to Moscow after talks about possible future...

-PTI Plan panel member appreciates ICAR, Agrinnovate India Ltd for encouragement of entrepreneurship and innovations Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) should focus on the development of intellectual properties for promoting entrepreneurships among farmers, Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen said today. "Today knowledge and technology are becoming the property rights and it brings benefits for those who own it," Sen said while delivering the foundation day lecture of Agrinnovate India Ltd. ICAR should concentrate...

-The Hindu Mining companies have received favourable impact assessments even as they do great damage to the environment because regulators are willing to look the other way Last week, world leaders concerned about economic development got together at the International Monetary Fund, and gave a series of most instructive interviews. Our Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, said that his problem was the slowing down of India's economic growth and reduction in government revenues....

-The Hindu Denying basic amenities to residents of ‘unrecognised' slums is an affront to their dignity; resettling them fails to address their concerns and is unviable financially Since 2005, the Central government has given significant amounts of money to the States to improve conditions for the country's urban poor, first under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and more recently through the slow-moving Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY). Unfortunately, very few...

-The Hindu The Union Ministry of Labour has done well to raise the salary cap for availing Employees' State Insurance (ESI) to Rs.25,000. While the move is expected to expand coverage to an additional five million workers and their dependents, this is still small comfort in a country where barely three per cent of the workforce enjoys any social protection. The evolution of ESI has been characterised by an accent...