-The Economic Times,    The BJP today demanded a thorough probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into all corruption cases in Orissa. "All scams that have taken place during the 11-year-rule of Naveen Patnaik should be investigated thoroughly by SIT," BJP's national secretary Kirit Somaya told reporters after releasing a chargesheet against the state government. SIT should be formed to probe scams relating to MGNREGA, dal scandal, mining, Water, cheating of farmers,...

The debate over the National Food Security Act has been reduced to a circus for political parties, NGOs and the National Advisory Council to perform verbal calisthenics. The discussion on who is entitled, who is not entitled and who should be entitled has gone on for over two years. The discourse is deteriorating into informed nit-picking. The time for debate is over; the time for decision is overdue. Let us get...

It was a warm summer’s morning last week in teeming old Faridabad, a chaotic, industrial town where nearly half the people live in slums. Praveen Kumar was talking to students at a government girls’ senior secondary school. They complained about the broken fans, and they told him how there was just one sweeper to clean the stinky toilet. A lean, graying man with a receding hairline and neatly trimmed moustache, 51-year-old...

Deccan Herald   When the researchers and agriculturists across the country are having heated debates on introducing BT brinjal in the country, they have forgotten to protect the desi Brinjal variety ‘Sunde Badane’, which is grown only in few places. The farmers too are in tight spot with no funds to try out new methods of farming to protect these types. Though India and China are said to be the origin of...

-Express News Service   A team of 13 research scholars from the Centre for Sustainable Technologies, IISc, will now conduct environmental service enhancement assessments at the national level starting from June. These scholars have conducted a study on environmental service enhancement and conservation and vulnerability reduction at Chitradurga district. "Talks are on to start the assessment by the last week of June at Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya. Discussions are...