Armed with integrated action plans for 35 Naxalite-affected districts in nine states, the Planning Commission is all set to approach the Union Cabinet for a proposed outlay of Rs 13,742 crore to wean away the tribals from sympathising with the Maoists through comprehensive infrastructure and economic development as well as proper implement of the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996 and related Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest...

The Union Environment Ministry has formed a fresh panel to look into the alleged violation of forest rights of tribals in Niyamgiri hills, where it has held up clearance to the bauxite mining project of Vedanta Resources. The Ministry, in a notification on Tuesday, announced a four-member panel to be headed by NC Saxena from National Advisory Council (NAC). S Parasuraman from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Promode Kant and Amita...

THE Indian Bureau of Mines, in its Indian Minerals Yearbook–2005, notes that Chhattisgarh has 28 different types of minerals, with coal and iron ore being the most abundant. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), in its comprehensive book Rich Lands, Poor People: Is ‘Sustainable' Mining Possible?, says that around 16 per cent of India's coal reserves, 10 per cent of its iron-ore reserves, 5 per cent of its limestone...

In June 1991, the country embarked on a bold adventure by exposing to market vicissitudes its insulated manufactories, regulated (but pockmarked with soft spots) financial markets and inexperienced economic players. An economy, in those days, was about people, not giant factories and ships with riches. Though successive governments have secured the reformative underpinnings of the liberalisation process, it is to the credit of players in India that the sublime quest...

Tripura Forest Minister Jitendra Chowdhury has expressed deep concern over degradation of forest land due to shifting cultivation (Jhum) over the years and revealed that Manipur has emerged as the worst-affected State, followed by Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura. Addressing a National Seminar on the Great Depression of 1930s and Present Global Economic Melt Down and its Impact on Tribal Society at Shillong last week, Chowdhury said about 45 per cent of...