-The Hindu Commodification, commercialisation and financialisation of nature will produce a greedy, not green, economy Over 100 world leaders will meet in Rio de Janeiro this week for the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, popularly referred to as Rio+20 Global Earth Summit. It is being held amidst “‘a world running low on drinking water and productive land’ and set against the backdrop of accelerating global warming, climate change, chemical contamination of air, land...

John Vidal, who was in Rio for the '92 Earth summit, looks back at that momentous event, and how the 2012 version compares Helicopters thundered up and down the chic Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. Tanks guarded the bridges and tunnels. The favelas were in lockdown, schools closed and supermarkets stood empty. Unexpectedly, George H W Bush, the 41st US president, flush with success at the collapse of communism, had arrived in...

-Down to Earth Industrial houses use tribals as fronts to amass tribal land in Chhattisgarh Ram Singh’s neighbours tease him by calling him Crorepati Singh. The 40-year-old Gond tribal from Parsada village in Raipur district of Chhattisgarh has hardly any landholding and depends on the government’s employment guarantee schemes to feed his family. But according to official documents, Singh has recently purchased land worth Rs 1.5 crore from a dozen of tribals...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: Activists campaigning for universal education on Monday called for a common school system that would offer education free of cost for all children in the country and help stop the commercialization of education.  Briefing reporters about an all India conference to be held in the city on June 30 and July 1, All India Forum for Right To Education presidium member Anil Sadgopal said, "There is widespread...

-The Hindu   A doctor-couple from Beed, who had been on the run after they were found to have been carrying out illegal abortions and sex-determination tests, surrendered before the district police on Sunday. On Monday, a local court in Beed remanded them in police custody till June 30. Sudam Munde and his wife, Saraswati Munde, have been absconding since the end of last month. A sting operation revealed that their clinic flouted...