Power comes through the barrel of a gun, Mao Zedong said. For Lekha-Mendha, though, such power seems rooted in bamboo. The village in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli today became the first in India to win the right to grow, harvest and sell bamboo, a key goal of a five-year-old central law which aims to give tribal communities control over some resources of the jungles they live in. “This is a historic day. Bamboo has...

After Bihar complained against the clandestine experiments of GM food crops in the state, it is Madhya Pradesh's turn now. State agriculture development minister Ramkrishn Kusmaria has written to the Centre against the clearance by Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) to GM Maize trials in the state. GEAC is the statutory authority under the environment ministry to clear trials and introduction of genetically modified crops. It had come under flak from...

The activism of civil society against corruption has caught the imagination of many Indians. Arguments put forward by representatives of the civil society organisations (CSOs) can be summarised as follows: 'All - at least most - politicians, ministers, bureaucrats are corrupt. Voters are incapable of deciding what is good for them. The police, Central Bureau of Investigation and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, and all other agencies of the State...

The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it had constituted a high level committee comprising the heads of various probe agencies and specialised departments under the aegis of the Department of Revenue to monitor the investigation of all aspects relating to black money. Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam told a Bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar that the 10-member committee, headed by the Revenue Secretary, would...

Coincides with Conference of Parties to Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in Geneva Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan went on a seven-hour fast at the Martyrs' Column here on Monday demanding a ban on Endosulfan and seeking Central assistance for the victims of the pesticide. About 500 people from different walks of life joined the fast, held as part of a State-wide observation of Anti-Endosulfan Day by the government. Later, they...