-The Economic Times   Environment minister Jairam Ramesh has approved two mining proposals - one by Iifco and the other by the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam - on the fringes of the Hasdeo-Arand forest region in Chhattisgarh. Ramesh set aside the recommendation of the statutory body of the environment ministry, the Forest Advisory Committee , to reject the proposals. With Thursday's order, coal mining will be allowed in Tara, Parsa...

Being asked to write on Suresh Tendulkar means that the memories of four tumultuous decades Crowd in. They are memories of a genuine teacher, a very careful researcher and an obstinately independent western Indian in Delhi. I always thought of him as a very competent and highly trained economist — but also as an obstinately autonomous Maratha in unfamiliar surroundings. In the 1970s, while examining critiques of the draft Fifth Five-Year...

Even as the Orissa government suspended land acquisition for the proposed mega steel plant of Posco in this seaside block in Jagatsinghpur district for an indefinite period on Tuesday, senior leaders of the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) expressed their solidarity with the villagers opposing the venture. Veteran CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta and senior CPI(M) MP Basudev Acharya demanded that the Naveen Patnaik government stop forceful...

There is nothing wrong in having advisory groups. But there is a problem when groups not constituted legally cross the line of demands, advice and rights-based, democratic agitation. The 1990s saw marketing whiz kids at the largest English daily in the world steal a term then in vogue among sexually discriminated minorities: PLUs — or People Like Us. Media content would henceforth be for People Like Us. This served advertisers' needs...

Policies aiming to combat malnutrition are ignoring an entire generation of women whose overall health has a direct bearing on children’s growth, say advocacy groups and researchers Cradling a frail son on her hip and with a plastic bag stuffed with clothes in one hand, Tara Jadam walked into the rehabilitation centre inside the district hospital here to spend the next two weeks. On a hot afternoon, she has walked several miles...