The tribal people of Chhattisgarh are in an extremely dangerous situation, caught as they are between the state forces and the Maoists. THIRTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD Soni Sori, an Adivasi schoolteacher from Chhattisgarh, was arrested in Delhi on October 4 on charges of acting as a conduit between the Essar group and the Maoists, the former accused of giving “protection money” to the latter. On October 7, she moved the Delhi High Court to...

Consumers to be given time to comply with Ministry order The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has brought in an amendment to its Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Regulation of Supply and Distribution) Order 2000 making the Unique Identification Number (UID) under the Aadhaar project must for availing LPG refills. The move is aimed at removing multiple connections and those availing cylinders in third party name and to clean up the LPG consumer...

India's cabinet has approved a major new policy to develop national manufacturing. The policy aims to create a 100 million jobs in the next 10 years and allows for a series of special new zones to support manufacturing growth. At the moment, that sector only accounts for about 16% of the country's gross domestic product. That has barely changed in the last three decades and is seen as well below India's potential. It is...

-The Hindustan Times   The Allahabad high court verdict on Noida and Greater Noida land acquisition cases has fuelled hopes of a better deal among the farmers of Yamuna Expressway, the third industrial development authority in Gautam Budh Nagar district. Many of the 30-odd villages along the Noida-Agra toll road have moved court, seeking increased cash relief, regularisation of abadi land and allotment of developed plots. In the first phase, the high court had...

Urban India's greatest comforts are the cause of a super-size health problem: obesity. Easy access to high-calorie packaged foods, sedentary lifestyles and a predilection for gizmos have resulted in almost 70% Indians in mega-cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore or Chennai being overweight or obese, says a new multi-city survey. The profiling of 46,000 urban Indians-all of whom have access to the internet-showed that 49% were obese or had a...