Based on detailed analysis of weather data of last five years in Leh, Ladakh, scientists have attributed the recent cloudburst in the region to prolonged Winters which may be due to climate change. "After going through the sequence of events of the weather that led to the cloudburst on August 6, it has been reinforced that the catastrophe was due to prolonged Winters being witnessed in the region," sources in Leh-based...

Before cheap food for all, a reality check on the bill. The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council will draft the food security law only after talking to the various ministries to get a “realistic” idea of the cost to the government. A fully universal food law already seems unlikely after the government and the Planning Commission questioned how feasible such a move would be in the current fiscal and agricultural situations. Today’s council...

The spotlight on the long-pending amendment to the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, was back when a Congress delegation, led by general secretaries Rahul Gandhi and Digvijay Singh, extracted a promise from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday that he would bring a Bill to amend the Act in the Winter session of Parliament. Emerging from a meeting in Parliament House, Mr. Digvijay Singh said: “The Uttar Pradesh government is misusing the...

A parliamentary standing committee has recently asked the government to introduce the national food security Bill in the Winter session of the Lok Sabha. A promise to implement a Bill of this kind was first mooted in President Pratibha Patil's inaugural speech last year when she mentioned the government's intention to provide each family below the poverty line (BPL) with 25 kg of foodgrains a month at Rs 3 per...

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, now on a tour of the State's drought-hit areas, has said that the prime task before the government was to save whatever crop had been sown in the 11 districts where cultivation had been badly affected by the errant monsoon. Protecting livelihoods was also very important, he said. “Our first task now is to save whatever crop has already been cultivated by the farmers in...