-The Times of India The Maharashtra government is under the scanner for lack of transparency in facilitating planned hill city of Lavasa in state's Pune district. The CAG report has slammed the state "for failing to adhere to regulations, amending existing laws for the project, disturbing the already ecologically fragile environment and violating green norms''. "The project seems to be driven by private interest and not by public interest," the report said. The...

-Live Mint At a time when India plans a multi-pronged attack on malnutrition in 200 high-burden districts, it will pay to examine the cracks in state institutions that have led to past failures and can still derail well-intentioned plans. Melghat, a tribal corner in the northeastern fringes of India’s richest state—Maharashtra—is an apt example of almost everything that has gone wrong in India’s response to malnutrition and child deaths. Every 14th child dies...

The Centre for Science and Environment has extended its deadline for media fellowships 2012. If you have interest in environmental issues please go through the enclosed notification from the CSE and apply for the media fellowships. Terms and conditions are given below and can also be found on the CSE website (http://www.cseindia.org/).  For any clarification or more information please email or phone Papia Samajdar, or Souparno Banerjee at souparno@cseindia.org / 9910864339. The...

 When Mamata Banerjee defeated the Communist Party of India (Marxist) last May after 34 years of power in West Bengal, her victory was portrayed by optimists as the beginning of a Kolkata Spring. Free of the communists’ rural thugs and urban heelers, the story went, the state would finally enter the 21st century. One year after Banerjee’s landslide, however, the new boss is looking a lot like the old one —...

People with agricultural land that they do not wish to cultivate will soon have the option of depositing it in government land banks that will offer them consistent monetary returns. With an incentive system broadly on the lines of a bank account, the public land bank will offer payments based on the tenure and size of the holding with additional benefits if the land is leased out. "A lot of land is...