Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today pledged Rs 300 crore to farmers to make Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) President Balbir Singh Rajewal accept a glass of juice to end his five-day hunger strike in Mohali. Addressing a joint press conference along with Rajewal, the Chief Minister said the Rs 300 crore would compensate farmers for the diesel used by them to grow paddy last year in near-drought conditions. The Rs...

Two days after the government scrapped a bauxite mining project in Orissa, Rahul Gandhi visited Niyamgiri, the ground zero of the anti-mine protests and told tribals that he was their sipahi in Delhi. Around the same time, farmers in Uttar Pradesh said they wouldn’t sell their land at the rates the government was offering. India is growing fast, but hassles over the acquisition of land are going to be the...

Mohali/Chandigarh: *Govt refuses to give into concession demands*Deputy CM says demands unjustified*Balbir Singh Rajewal sits on hunger strike Even as the farmers from across the state on Monday launched an indefinite agitation to mount pressure on the state government to accept their demands — for a financial package to farmers and waiver of electricity bills—¿ the Punjab government refused to accept any of them. Hundreds of farmers from across the state descended...

With decline in insurgency, infrastructural development is taking place once again in Nagaland, especially in its rural areas. The change can be witnessed, particularly in villages where government-sponsored schemes are being implemented. Nagaland's Seithekema village is one such example. Located 20 kilometres from Dimapur on the National Highway-39, it exists as a hamlet. Established in 1979, it is located along the Valley of Parkai Mountain Range and inhabited by Angami tribals. The people here...

For all the progress on the millennium development goals, it seems countries are growing richer while leaving their poor behind In less than a week Barack Obama will be sitting down with 191 heads of government in New York to review progress on the most ambitious programme the UN has ever attempted. In 2000 the world signed up to eight goals which included halving those living in poverty, universal primary education,...