-DNA Hyderabad: The Hudhud cyclone that had hit Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in October has caused a loss of Rs 21,908 crore, including damage to the tune of Rs 6,136 crore to private industries in the port city, the state government told the Legislative Assembly on Hyderabad. Making a statement on Hudhud today, Deputy Chief Minister N China Rajappa said the human loss in the devastating cyclone which made a landfall on...

-Deccan Chronicle Chennai: The Chennai metro rail, in spite of being the most advanced mode of transport that is coming to the city, does not have any provision for toilets for its passengers. The design plan of none of the 31 stations shows toilets for passengers and officials confirm this. According to metro rail officials, the exclusion of toilets from the design is due to the fact that even Delhi metro...

-The Hindu Other States in India can study how the family planning programme has worked in Kerala and incorporate those features in their own programmes The recent tragedy of several women losing their lives in the state-sponsored tubectomy camp in Takhatpur, Chhattisgarh, has caused severe damage to the national family planning programme. This, however, is not an invalidation of the importance of sterilisation as an integral part of the programme, but only...

-Frontline The Left and other national parties protest against the NDA government's attempts to dilute the MGNREGS by limiting its budget and reducing its reach. IN a rare show of solidarity, representatives of several political parties took issue with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on its controversial proposal to restructure the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The opposition, which was initially confined to the...

-The Hindu Though the Union Environment Ministry acknowledges its damage, Uttarakhand's hydroelectric project-driven development agenda remains unchanged Chaaen, a village atop a hill in the picturesque Alaknanda Valley, is infamous for getting a hydroelectric project into trouble. I first visited the village last year while covering the worst flood disaster Uttarakhand had witnessed. On June 26, 2013, as I stood at Narendra Singh's verandah in Chaaen, I noticed how the walls had developed...