-Maintream Weekly In order to reduce and remove the many-sided disadvantages and problems faced by Dalits and adivasis, sub-plans for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been introduced to ensure adequate and justice-based availability of funds for these communities. Summarising the basic idea and rationale for this, the Planning Commission says: “the persistence of socio-economic backwardness of the SCs and STs in spite of the development efforts had warranted a special...

-The Indian Express New Delhi: In an order with wide-ranging ramifications, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Tuesday passed a series of stringent directions aimed at curbing air pollution in Delhi, banning all diesel vehicles more than 10 years old from plying in the National Capital Region, and sought an immediate stop to all illegal construction activity. Picking up several points brought out in the ‘Death by Breath' series, an ongoing investigation by...

-TheWeekendLeader.com/ Women's Feature Service Radha Shukla, 43, can't really remember the last time she took a holiday. "It's been so long since I have celebrated a festival with my family or even taken leave. But I don't mind it; my work is important," she says emphatically. To Shanta Koshti, 50, the years she spent as a poorly-paid ‘beedi' worker seem like another lifetime. "At present, my entire focus is on motivating people...

-Newsclick.in The government in India continues to kow-tow to corporate lobbies at the cost of the environment and public health including occupational health. While always an integral part of ruling class politics in India, as witnessed in the seemingly never-ending saga of the Bhopal Gas Disaster, this has reached new heights under the BJP government led by PM Narendra Modi which is rapidly dismantling even the already weak environmental regulatory structure....

-Deccan Herald There have been protests by several organisations of fishermen, including those of deep-sea artisanal fisher folk in several coastal states against the recommendations of an expert committee that reviewed India's marine fishing policy and the existing Guidelines for deep-sea fishing in the country's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Union agriculture ministry's Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries (DAHD&F), through an order on August 1, 2013 constituted an expert committee...