Union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh today frowned upon the state government and demanded greater reliability on the question of funds use after enduring a bumpy ride to a Dumka village, which to his surprise lacked road connectivity. Ramesh, who arrived in Dumka from Calcutta this morning, met self-help groups (SHGs) engaged in tussar silk production at Dhaka village, 30km from the district headquarters, in rebel-hit Shikaripara block. The minister appreciated...

Speaking at an international workshop on Equity and Climate Change, held on April 12, the minister for environment and forests, Jayanthi Natarajan, sought to build a consensus on the inter-relationship between equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities in the Climate Convention, and the nature of the obligations they entail in the new arrangement that is to be negotiated. By focusing on a technical definition of equity the approach...

Here’s a “growth story” that Standard and Poor’s missed: a piece of official statistics shows good old India has grown — literally. Over 5,000sqkm of wasteland has been converted into “net” usable terrain between 2005 and 2008, according to the Wasteland Atlas of India that was released today. Even Bengal, pilloried for profligacy and other wasteful pastimes, has done its modest bit to transform wasteland. But the big battles against barren land...

Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yedduruppa might face CBI probe for his role in illegal mining The Supreme Court has allowed 45 iron-ore mines in Karnataka to resume operations. The decision came after the apex court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) found that there was no illegality or only minor ones in their operations. The mines include those of the National Mining Development Corporation (NMDC), Mineral Enterprises Limited and Mysore Minerals...

Arundhati has got it all wrong—the facts speak out against her romantic notions of the tribals’ fight Nirad C. Chaudhary wrote in The Continent of Circe that India’s tribals were mainly found in hill forests. This was because, he reasoned, they had been chased there by the invading Aryans, who displaced them from their river plains. In an essay published in this magazine (Capitalism: A Ghost Story, March 26), Arundhati Roy...