Hydropower projects in tribal Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti district are witnessing stiff opposition from local residents. But their protests are going unheard due to lack of political will. Tribals are up in arms to save their fertile lands and natural source of irrigation, but their concerns have gone unheard in government corridors, as the state government is approving projects one after another in tribal areas. On Friday, over 200 residents of Tindi...

A revamped version of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the government's flagship social sector programme, will be unveiled on November 14. The makeover, crafted by rural development minister Jairam Ramesh and Planning Commission member Mihir Shah, promises to iron out administrative glitches that have dogged the six-year-old scheme, credited for boosting incomes but panned for stoking inflation. "We are ready with version 2 of MGNREGA. It will basically strengthen the...

'Economic growth will need massive energy. Will we allow an accident in Japan, in a 40-year-old reactor at Fukushima, arising out of extreme natural stresses, to derail our dreams to be an economically developed nation?' Every single atom in the universe carries an unimaginably powerful battery within its heart, called the nucleus. This form of energy, often called Type-1 fuel, is hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of times more powerful...

-The Hindu   The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) has built into its design a multi-layered safety mechanism along with additional protocols to safeguard against systemic or human error at the 2000-MW station, nuclear experts said on Sunday. The incorporation of broad-ranging safety features makes the plant completely safe and insulated from a set of worst-case radiation risk scenarios, including a Chernobyl-type calamity or a Fukushima-like disaster set off by a tsunami, scientists...

On September 18 an earthquake of the magnitude of 6.8 by the Richter scale struck Sikkim at about 6.18 pm The epicentre of the quake was located about 67 kms north-west of Gangtok—the State capital. The epicenter was located to be precise at Mangan, the headquarter, of the Sikkim North district. There were about four-to-five aftershocks of lesser intensity within five-to-six hours. Minor tremors were felt even after a few...