-The Hindu   Act states regulation of mines and mineral development comes within Centre's purview: SC New Delhi: States have no power to frame a mining policy dehors the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act and the Mineral Concession Rules. Reiterating this point, the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed review petitions filed by the Centre, JSW Steel Ltd and others seeking review of the September 2010 judgment in the ‘Sandur Manganese and Iron...

-Down to Earth Two developments in the last week essay the progress of panchayatiraj in the past 20 years. The Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj issued public Notifications asking village panchayats to hold the next village council meeting in April/May. It is an irony that the highest unit of government i.e. the union government decides the dates of meetings for the lowest tier of governance. The Notification violates the letter and...

-The Indian Express On Monday, the Bengali new year's day, viewers who tuned into Bengali music channel Tara Muzik witnessed a spectacle never seen before on Indian TV. Anchors of the channel and independent artistes called in to present Barsha Baran, a programme to celebrate the new year 1420, wept copiously on camera while announcing that the channel, facing an unprecedented "crisis of survival", was shutting down. Hundreds of viewers commiserated with...

-The Hindu Concerned over the extreme left groups' penetration into tribal territories and their ability to win over the hearts and minds of people deprived of basic necessities of life, the government has drawn-up a nine point action plan to deal with a host of development challenges. The action plan is an outcome of series of meeting of a specially constituted Review Group of LWE (Left-Wing Extremism) under the aegis of...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: One of the three convicts on death row for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, AG Perarivalan, will on Monday be on a videoconference with Central Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra on a complaint against Rashtrapati Bhavan and the ministry of home affairs on a petition seeking to know why his mercy plea was rejected in August 2011. A Notification on the videoconference was fixed three days ago...