-The Hindu   The educational and economic development of Dalits is seen by the backward castes as a challenge to the social order, as recent incidents in Tamil Nadu show On the evening of November 7, 2012, a crowd numbering over 1000 people burst into three Dalit settlements in Dharmapuri, north-western Tamil Nadu, and laid them Waste. Over a period of several hours, they looted, smashed and burned. Trees had been felled on...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court on Monday said there is no basis to the fear that the radioactive effects of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, when commissioned, will be far reaching. A Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra said: "We are convinced that the KKNPP design incorporates advanced safety features complying with the current standards of redundancy, reliability, independence and prevention of common cause failures in its safety systems....

-The Indian Express SC has usefully separated valid safety concerns from generalised fears of nuclear power In clear and ringing terms, the Supreme Court has backed the operationalising of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant. Nuclear energy is necessary for the larger public interest, for "present and future generations", it stressed, while ordering the government to comply with all safety measures. The court had been hearing a string of petitions that said the...

-The Hindu Launched towards the end of 2010, the Rs. 9,000-crore Gujarat Solar Park, set up on government Wasteland in north Gujarat, has already been producing 214 MW from the sun, making it the first State to generate such capacity at a single location. And when expanded to 5,000 acres from the present 2,669 acres, the Charanka Park, located at a village of Patan district, will generate 500 MW. This will make...

-The Hindu Vinod Jain lives in a sprawling landscaped farmhouse on the outskirts of the city, an area that is an exclusive address; not far from this posh neighbourhood lives Amin Mohammad in a shanty amid rubble and refuse on land illegally occupied. And the only thing common between the two households otherwise at the two ends of an economic spectrum is that with no source of municipal water in their neighbourhoods...