-Hard News Media “I was beaten up by the cops; lathicharged,” said a professor from St. Stephen’s College. She, along with another senior teacher from Hindu College were beaten up, pushed and manhandled. Not one police officer was ready to listen to their point of view, even as they were pushed around. Even as the sun set, hundreds of students continued to peacefully protest outside the college, while more teachers joined...

-NDTV Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has put off the land acquisition for Rs. 52,000 crore Posco steel plant in Jagatsinghpur district today after protests by local villagers since the process resumed last week. The police force deployed at the Gobindpur village near the Posco site will also be withdrawn for now. The move comes a day after standoff between villagers and police when the cops allegedly tried to enter the village. The agitators, including...

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) has been the target of criticism from industry groups to the Prime Minister for allegedly holding up infrastructure and industrial development through its system of green clearances. But a recent analysis of 5 years of decision-making put out by an environmental group suggests why these attacks might be misplaced, given the ease with which every single of 262 proposed hydropower and irrigation projects...

-The Times of India BANGALORE: When Samuel Joseph (name changed), a parent, went to the Indian Public School in Sultanpalya on Monday to get his five-year-old daughter admitted under the Right to Education Act (RTE), this is what he was told by the headmaster. "First go and ask the government to pay me the remaining reimbursement amount and deposit it with the BEO. Then come to me for admission." Blame it on...

-IPS News Officials at the World Bank are forcefully rejecting a new internal evaluation that is highly critical of the institution’s decade-long forest policy, expressing their “strong disagreement” with some assertions in the report. The assessment, written by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), the World Bank Group’s auditor, warns that expectations for poverty reduction as envisioned in the bank’s 2002 Forest Strategy “have not yet been met”. The report is particularly critical...