-The Hindu Thousands of acres of uncultivable forested hills in Haryana, Gurgaon and Faridabad face the same prospect Gurgaon: Two decades ago when Sunil’s parents sold off 25 acres of their family’s share of land in the Mangar forests of Faridabad, they and other villagers thought the buyers were fools to buy it up because they were assured that they could continue to use it for grazing cattle and Firewood. Today, 25-year-old...

-Deccan Herald Mumbai: Palghar that grabbed headlines late last year for all the wrong reasons continues to simmer with news trickling from interiors  that communalist forces have barred Christian adivasi families from drawing water or collecting Firewood to cook food. The ostracising of Christian adivasis in the tribal taluk of rural Thane district reached its peak on Sunday when a mob raising slogans disrupted a worship service and assaulted worshippers. Delayed reports...

-The Economic Times The results of the UN climate-change conference that closed in Doha, Qatar, last Saturday show once again that the international negotiations are progressing, albeit slowly. At the heart of these negotiations is the most challenging energy transformation the world has ever seen. Past energy transitions have taken a long time to unfold. Firewood was not displaced by coal until the 18th century. It took one century for oil to...

-Outlook The cap on subsidised LPG has the UPA regime worried Something Cookin’     There’s definitely going to be a relook at the six-subsidised-cylinders cap     Fear that LPG could cause a replay of the “onion impact” on 2014 polls     Pressure from all parties for increasing number of subsidised cylinders     Central government keen that states too share burden of extra cylinders      But that could be tricky when discussing Centre-state revenue-sharing Cylinder Pricing     Subsidised cylinders...

-The Telegraph Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh elections appear to have turned a straight fight between the induction cooker and “pricey” LPG. The Congress, led by five-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh, was looking the clear favourite till incumbent Prem Kumar Dhumal unveiled a new voter sop in the final rounds of campaigning. The BJP chief minister offered free induction cookers to tide the people over the cooking gas price hike brought about by the...