Experts agree that the economic and environmental costs of interlinking India's rivers far outweigh its projected benefits. Some people believe it is the one-stop solution to prevent floods and droughts, reduce water scarcity, raise irrigation potential and increase foodgrain production in the country. But others say it is just another grandiose scheme involving huge costs and leading to long-term ecological consequences. The contentious idea of interlinking India's rivers has come...

At the intensive care unit of the state-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital in New Delhi, a two-year-old battered baby girl is fighting to survive. The doctors attending to her have waged a six-week battle to keep her alive, but they are quickly losing hope that she will ever live a normal life after the torture she endured at such a tender age. When she was first brought to...

The five-member Empowered Committee, headed by the former Chief Justice of India A.S. Anand, at its meeting here on Monday, will examine the reports it has received from various agencies it constituted to go into the safety of the Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala. In December last, the committee conducted a spot inspection of the dam. It also heard the views of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the Centre on the issues framed...

-The Hindu   Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is to meet a small group of editors on Wednesday morning to discuss issues ranging from corruption charges against the government to continuing inflation and unemployment. The informal interaction comes days after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, which took stock of the current political situation. Some CWC members were reportedly of the view that Dr. Singh should engage the media more often and dispel...

Congress expected to endorse government's stand on excluding PM from ambit of Bill Some party leaders prefer to include PM, given the strong public sentiment against corruption Government's original draft included Prime Minister Ahead of an all-party meeting on July 3 to debate the controversial Lokpal Bill, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's apex body, will meet on Friday to discuss what is euphemistically being described as the “the current political situation.”...