Despite Gujarat's impressive growth rate, the state trails less developed ones like Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam when it comes to malnutition. A new report places Gujarat at the thirteenth poSITion on a list of states based on hunger. “Among the industrial high per capita income states, Gujarat (69.7 per cent children up to age 5 anaemic and 44.6 per cent malnourished) fares the worst in terms of overall...

Although India is a labour-surplus economy – with an unlimited number of workers willing to work at a subsistence wage – a paradoxical feature of the labour market is the rising incidence of scarcity or shortages amid a SITuation of potential plenty. No doubt, this pertains to skilled labour. But when 15 per cent of Indian trucks are idle owing to a shortage of drivers or India Inc is worried...

Omar appeasing radical political elements in the State, says Bhan Amid reports of the Defence Ministry's oppoSITion to the withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) from certain areas in Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress, the main ally of the Omar Abdullah-led coalition government in the State, also voiced its reservations. The party also repeated its demand for rotational Chief Ministership after completion of three years of the present...

-PTI   CPI(M) and other parties, including scientists and activists, on Sunday came together to form a national committee to support the struggle against the Jaitapur nuclear project in Maharashtra. A 15-member National Committee in Support of Jaitapur Struggle will have CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, his CPI counterpart AB Bardhan, former Atomic Energy Regulatory Board chairman Dr A Gopalkrishnan and former Union finance secretary SP Shukla as members among others. "The people of...

-The Hindu   The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) has built into its design a multi-layered safety mechanism along with additional protocols to safeguard against systemic or human error at the 2000-MW station, nuclear experts said on Sunday. The incorporation of broad-ranging safety features makes the plant completely safe and insulated from a set of worst-case radiation risk scenarios, including a Chernobyl-type calamity or a Fukushima-like disaster set off by a tsunami, scientists...