-Live Mint   Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh is advocating a new approach to fighting the Maoist insurgency that has gripped 78 districts so far. Apart from development and security, the approach involves politics and justice, he said. In an interview, Ramesh warned that in the rush to attain high growth rates, India was placing the interests of tribals below that of mining firms. The minister suggested the setting up of a...

-PTI Rising populations are driving the Earth towards a catastrophic breakdown where species we depend on would die out, an international team of scientists has claimed, blaming the crisis on over use of water, forests and Land for agriculutre.  Writing in the journal Nature, the team warned that the world is headed toward a tipping point marked by extinctions and unpredictable changes on a scale not seen since the glaciers retreated 12,000...

-The Business Standard Better regulation of the sector is needed The environmental performance of the Indian iron and steel industry is poor, according to the latest indices released by the Green Rating Project of the Centre for Science and Environment. On a scale of 10 (the theoretical best), the global best practitioners score eight, while the Indian leaders score only two. The steel industry, if it chooses to ignore this index, will...

-The Times of India   BHOPAL: Driven by abject poverty and financial distress, a farmer along with his wife and two children committed suicide by jumping before a train in Harda district in western Madhya Pradesh, police said on Friday.   Rajendra Singh Rajput, 40, along with his wife aged 35, and two boys Aniketh, 14, and Mohit, 11, was run over by Guwahati Express (Mumbai LTT - Guwahati) in Palasnar area on Thursday...

Citizens across 483 cities paid as much as Rs 44.77 crore in bribes, to get their Land documents, electricity connections, a seat in a preferred college or register their dream home. And all this in just 21 months. Ipaidabribe, the only online forum for citizens to air their grievances when they grease palms, clocked 1 million hits as on May 31, 2012. Needless to say, it is the registration department...