Jairam Ramesh's order of May 6 rescinding his earlier stop-work notice with regard to the Maheshwar dam surprises many. ON May 6, Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, made a confession while responding to a questioner at a public meeting. He said he had been under “pressure” to overlook environmental violations while clearing certain projects. “Regularisation of illegality is a peculiar Indian characteristic. First you...

Unhappy over the inclusion of human rights activist Binayak Sen in the Steering Committee on Health by the Planning Commission, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has conveyed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his government's decision of not to participate in the panel's meetings. “I am constrained and pained to take a decision to not to attend any Planning Commission meeting till this matter is resolved,” the Chief Minister has said while...

The cheapest car in the world proved the costliest for a 34-year-old Left Front CPI-M government in India’s eastern state of West Bengal, as the communists lost the elections here by a wide margin. The outcome is the result of an anti-left movement that began in 2006 following the controversial takeover of farmland to create a manufacturing plant for Tata Motors’ small family vehicle called the ‘Nano’. A sweep by a regional...

Tribal dominated districts have turned the theory of bias for male offspring on its head, while literacy levels have registered a surprisingly high growth, perhaps signalling a marginal improvement in the overall social structure of a largely underdeveloped state held hostage to political instability and Left wing Extremism. According to provisional data of Census 2011 for Jharkhand, released by director of census operations Sunil Kumar Burnwal today, tribal dominated districts like...

The All-India Adivasi Mahasabha, on the first day of its three-day long conference here on Monday at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium, stressed the need to unite the diverse tribal communities from across the country to gain a voice in Delhi, as a starting point to controlling their own destinies – and their land, water and forests. In his speech, Meghalaya Governor R.S. Moosahary told delegates: “Let us unite all tribal groups...