-IPS News India's planners worry about ‘jobless growth', but perhaps nothing illustrates this phenomenon better than a policy of handing over the collection and disposal of the capital's refuse to large private corporations, leaving close to 50,000 ragpickers unemployed. For decades ragpickers provided a service to this city, scavenging waste for recyclable plastic, aluminium, glass and other materials, and earning a livelihood by selling their pickings to contractors with equipment to process...

-The Indian Express Law on land acquisition will reduce distortions in the use of a scarce resource Land records are in a mess in most states. While satellite imagery can yield an authentic image of the plots, it cannot determine ownership. The land acquisition issue is nearing the end of its first phase. With the government accepting key BJP demands, a consensus has been evolved and the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Giving in to pressure from the autorickshaw lobby, the Delhi government on Wednesday decided to raise auto and taxi fares by a significant 25%. The government defended the hike citing inflation and costlier CNG but remained silent on a deadline for installing GPS in 55,000-odd older autorickshaws, a move that could prevent unsuspecting passengers from being taken for a ride. The auto fare hike is substantial. From...

-The United Nations The Asia-Pacific region, which has overtaken the rest of the world in consumption of raw materials as affluence and manufacturing increase, must boost its resource efficiency or risk losing ground in lifestyle, economic growth and environmental sustainability, according to a UN report released today. From 1970-2008, consumption of construction minerals increased 13.4 times, metal ores and industrial minerals consumption 8.6, fossil Fuels 5.4, and biomass 2.7 times, according to...

-The Hindu Moscow: Ahead of a key government-level interaction with Russia here on Monday, India has sought to assure Russia that it is not deliberately delaying the startup of the Kudankulam plant with the motive of thrashing out liability issues in that project and others proposed elsewhere in the country. To show its sincerity, India is dispatching a key Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) official M. I. Joy from...