Anti-Posco agitators on Sunday burnt copies of the new rehabilitation package issued by the company and accused Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of backtracking from his "promise" to visit the site for taking stock of the situation. Terming the package as meaningless, leaders of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) and others agitators said the residents of three gram panchayat in Jagatsinghpur district would "never allow" the mega steel plant to come up...

Eminent citizens, farmers and environmental activists on Friday threatened to launch a sustained agitation to oppose entry of BT Maize crop into Punjab and prevent any attempt to jeopardise the country's food sovereignty. This was announced at a press conference organised in response to reports that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had supported cultivation of BT Maize as part of the State Government's crop diversification mandate. Kheti Virasat Mission chief Umendera Dutt...

Development models that focus attention on the poor while expanding job opportunities, increased government spending on social services and aid flows from affluent nations are all successful strategies for alleviating global poverty, the United Nations says. Access to low carbon energy and mobilizing domestic capital by, for example, improving tax collection, are the other factors the UN Development Programme (UNDP) identifies in a new report as crucial factors for the...

Haryana to hold judicial inquiry into Dalit attack    Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Thursday said a judicial inquiry will be conducted into the incident of arson attack on the houses of Dalit (Balmiki) community in Hisar district's Mirchpur village. The Dalits of Mirchpur were targets of violence by the dominant upper caste members April 21. As many as 150 Dalit families were driven out of the village after an...

India has tumbled seven places in the Global Peace Index — a ranking of the most Peaceful nations of the world — thanks largely to the increase in the number of deaths from organized conflicts. The 2010 ranking of 149 nations places India at 128. New Zealand tops the index as the most Peaceful country and war-ravaged Iraq — no surprises here — has earned the distinction as the least...