The 10,000 MW nuclear power plant that the NPCIL proposes to set up at Jaitapur, Maharashtra, with reactors from French company Areva, was on the agenda of the Union Environment Ministry's Expert Appraisal Committee meeting on Monday. According to some members, the committee plans to recommend a conditional environmental clearance for the plant. However, it is not clear what the final decision of the committee will be. It is then up...

The country will release its first assessment report on Tuesday, on the impact of climate change on agriculture, health, Water and forests in four regions of the country. The report, covering the Himalayas, the Western Ghats, the coastal zone and the northeast has been prepared by the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) comprising 220 scientists from 120 research institutions across the country. "We need to know what would be...

Karnataka is expected to be one of the first beneficiaries of a major subsidised housing programme ‘Rajiv Awas Yojana' for the benefit of the urban poor to be taken up by the Union Government. Bangalore with 577 slums and with a population of nearly 10 lakh living there will stand to be the biggest beneficiary. To begin with, people residing in a total of 3.05 lakh dingy structures or thatched huts in...

Despite its seminal success in beginning a process of addressing issues of poverty, starvation and empowering the poor, the MGNREGA needed a general election to breathe life into it. However, the disproportionate influence of the middle class on social sector policy has led to the same set of pre-election prejudices resurfacing. "What use is the MGNREGA to the economy at large?" asks the businessman, one eye fixed apprehensively on the share...

India will on Tuesday release its first assessment report on the impact of climate change on four sectors, including agriculture and Water, in the country's four climatic hot spots like the Himalayas and the North East. "The first 4x4 assessment report will be released on November 16. Prepared by Indian Network of Climate Change Assessment, it will assess the impact of climate change on four sectors of the economy - agriculture,...