-The Hindu Deputy Commissioner asks officials to redouble efforts against illegal activities Gulbarga: Deputy Commissioner N.S. Prasanna Kumar on Wednesday reaffirmed that there would not be any let-up in the crackdown against illegal extraction and hoarding of sand and the district officials have been asked to redouble their efforts to put down such illegal activities. Talking to presspersons here, Mr. Prasanna Kumar said that 350 truckloads of sand illegally hoarded in open spaces...

-The Telegraph Lucknow: Schoolchildren near Badrinath doodled tidal waves, broken houses and carcasses when asked recently to draw whatever they wanted. A health worker in the same district recalled a mother going repeatedly to the Bank of a pond near her home in search of her two children feared dead 15 days ago. Another woman says she is having nightmares about being "engulfed by tidal waves any time" since losing her husBand and...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Large numbers of poor and vulnerable are exposed to risks and unexpected difficulties like unemployment, ill health, and natural disasters, an Asian Development Bank ( ADB) study says, because of lack of adequate social protection systems in many fast-growing middle-income countries in Asia and the Pacific. The Social Protection Index: Assessing Results for Asia and the Pacific-released on Wednesday gives India a score of 0.051, below most...

-The United Nations Without fresh ideas to address rapid urBanization, the number of people living in slums lacking access to basic infrastructure and services such as sanitation, electricity, and health care may skyrocket from one billion at present to three billion by 2050, the United Nations today reported. That wake up call is one of several alarm bells sounded in the UN World Economic and Social Survey 2013, which was launched today...

-The Times of India SHIMLA: Muck generated by hundreds of hydro power projects in Himachal Pradesh is being dumped along river beds, which has disturbed the natural course of major rivers in the state. With large scale construction of houses and hotels along the Banks of major rivers, especially Satluj, Beas and Parbati, even a slight change in the course of these rivers could wreak havoc, like in Uttarakhand, where the...