-Down to Earth Group has 1,750 farmers says pollution from industries has reduced them to poverty and political parties in power ignored their repeated pleas Ninety-five-year-old V Ammayappan is just back home from hospital after a kidney surgery. But this farmer from Melapalayam village in Tamil Nadu's Karur district is determined to cast his vote on April 24 when elections to Lok Sabha will be held in his state. He speaks with...

-The Hindustan Times   New Delhi: The absence of an elected government in Delhi has seemingly slowed down the pace of several infrastructure, development and social welfare projects in the Capital. While the administration - under the Lieutenant Governor - has taken control of the day-to-day affairs and has managed to carry out "routine" work with ease, sources confirmed that several development projects, which require constant direction, coordination and Monitoring, have lost pace. Construction...

-The Hindu     Over 41 per cent of urban households and 60 per cent of rural households with access to safe water get contaminated water, a report published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, has said. Although 99.6 per cent of urban and over 97 per cent of rural households surveyed had access to safe water, as defined by the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target 7c indicator, water was contaminated...

-The Business Standard   It is not pro-farmer, provides for too many committees and too many approvals, says Amitabh Kant The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will press to the next government for redrafting the recently enacted Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act. "The new (land acquisition) Act is extremely bureaucratic, with the introduction of a social impact assessment. It is not pro-farmer; it provides for too many committees and too many...

-The Business Standard     Institutions such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are considered the panacea of all ills that developing countries like India face. Although the amount of money these institutions lend is small, their influence on the economy is high. They continue to be the benchmark for social and environmental policies, good governance, climate change, corruption and so on. A look at some of the reports of these...