In the end, Gangula Tadangi succumbed to tuberculosis. The Kondh Adivasi’s life could have been saved if he had made it to the hospital on time. But he was in judicial custody at Koraput district jail in southern Odisha for allegedly “waging war against the Indian State”. During his last moments, Tadangi, 25, is said to have whispered something in Kondh. But nobody could make out anything because no one...

A war of words has broken out between the state government on the one hand and Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) on the other over processing land ownership claims of tribals as per provisions of the Forests Rights Act, 2006. In a report, a committee comprising officials from the two union ministries said lower-rung officials in the state have no clear understanding of...

Taking on the Department of Information Technology and Administrative Reforms, under which the state information commission falls, Punjab CIC RI Singh asserted that the rules framed by the Punjab government were in conflict with the RTI Act. “The powers to make the rules have been vested with the government to carry out the provisions of this Act and not to thwart them,” he said. Singh said although a formal direction to...

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has said recreating Nalanda University would not be easy and that it needed a scientific attitude and disciplined thought and the inspiration for this could come from old Nalanda itself. At the Indian Science Congress in Chennai today, Sen said: “The meeting here gives me an opportunity to recollect the pursuit of science in old Nalanda which will inspire and guide our long-run efforts in new Nalanda.” Sen...

Many endosulfan sufferers in Kerala still not recognised NARAYANA Vokalliga from Belur village in Kasaragod breathed his last on November 20 just as his son was explaining how his father had suffered from exposure to endosulfan for 30 years. The former employee of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala used to spray the toxic pesticide manually in the corporation’s cashew plantations at Nanjamparamba estate. When the corporation switched to aerial spraying, Narayan prepared...