-Down to Earth One-third of India's population are migrants, but the country is yet to make a policy or plan for them, says collaborative study report by Institute of Social Sciences and UNICEF As many as 309 million people, nearly a third of India's population, were migrants according to the 2001 Census. But the only ‘right' which they are able to exercise is the one that allows all citizens the right to...

-The Hindustan Times New Delhi: Hundreds of acres of precious forest land have been lost to illegal farmhouses. The forest department has found at least 15 sprawling farmhouses and other such structures inside south Delhi's Asola-Bhatti wildlife sanctuary. The sanctuary is home to more than 250 species of plants, 200 species of birds, 150 species of butterflies and 10 species each of animals including nilgai, mongoose, fox, porcupine, hyena and jackal. The...

-Women's Feature Service   For tribal communities, the forest has traditionally been their habitat, their source of income and their nutritional lifeline. So protection of the green cover and ready access to forest produce are issues that are connected with their survival. In India, while The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, recognises the rights of forest-dwellers over land and other resources, in reality there...

-The Business Standard   This report believes in demanding more, and cares little for inflation. It could have kept budgetary constraints in better focus and thrown more light on carbon-reducing innovations Fans of Rakesh Mohan reports will love this leviathan of a report. With 1,220 pages spread over three volumes, the report of the National Transport Policy Development Committee takes at least a week's effort to read. The analysis is in the second...

-The Hindu     Villagers convert a primary school building set up under SSA into a temple Bidar, Karnataka: What did the residents of Govind Tanda in the Humnabad taluk do when a government primary school closed down due lack of students? They converted the unused building, built under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in 2010, into a temple and mutt. The hamlet has had a school for more than two decades. But the old building...