-The Hindustan Times To kick-start stalled development projects and remove investment bottlenecks, the government is expected to make changes to the land acquisition act during the winter session that opens on November 24. Dilution of the consent clause, restricting social impact assessment to large projects and giving states the powers to define "emergency" under "urgency clause" for acquiring land are some of the major amendments -- demanded by various states -- that...

-The Hindu Chennai: There is accumulating evidence in India that pollution and contamination are becoming a serious public health issue, which requires focussed strategies to mitigate. "Environment in India is not a lifestyle issue. The missing dimension in the environment debate is the public health debate. One way of getting a larger political focus for environmental issues would be to pitch it as a public health issue," said Jairam Ramesh, former Union...

-Deccan Chronicle Hyderabad: The undue delay in remitting the first installment of loan waiver amount to banks by the Telangana state government has resulted in farmers across the state losing crop insurance benefit for the ongoing kharif season. Reports from Telangana districts confirm that the government did not remit the amount that was promised by it to banks by September 30, the last day for the banks to make adjustments of...

-Deccan Chronicle We are faced with two crises on a planetary scale - climate change and species extinction. Our current modes of production and consumption, starting with the Industrial Revolution and aggravated by the advent of industrial agriculture, have contributed to both. If no action is taken to reduce greenhouse gases, we could experience a catastrophic 4°C increase in temperatures by the end of the century. But climate change is not just...

-The Hindu   Rajasthan records the highest number of cases followed by U.P. There is a 17 per cent increase in registered cases of atrocities against members of the Schedules Castes in 2013 as compared to 2012 and the conviction rate is around 23 per cent, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot said on Friday. He was speaking at a two-day conference of ministers and principal secretaries dealing with Scheduled Castes,...