Projecting an 8.5 per cent economic growth for the current fiscal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday conceded that rising prices had brought distress to the common man, but exuded confidence that the “corrective” efforts of the Centre and the States would bring down inflation to about five or six per cent by the end of December this year. At a press conference here to mark the completion of the UPA-II...

Thirty years ago, a department of environment was set up in the Central government; 25 years ago, this was upgraded into a full-fledged ministry of environment and forests. As we mark these anniversaries, it must be said that the ministers in charge of this ministry have generally been incompetent, or malign, or both. Some might make an exception for Maneka Gandhi, who was minister of state for the environment between...

More than 20 million people employed in the fishing industry may need to be retrained for other work over the next 40 years if the final collapse of fish stocks in the world's oceans is to be avoided, the U.N. warned on Monday. The U.N.'s environment branch, UNEP, gave a preview of its green economy report that will be published in October. It said if the world remained on its path...

"We live on a day-to-day basis," Suraj says, as the faint sound of hammering echoes across the village. "What we earn is what we spend on our families in a day." In Ganne, just off the main road about an hour south of the city of Allahabad, this is a simple fact of life. It is home to members of a poor tribal community, who live in small huts clustered around...

The global platform for action on gender equality and women’s empowerment was fixed in Beijing 15 years ago and international organizations like the ILO, women activists and researchers, policymakers, etc all over the world have advocated for gender equality in the world of work for even longer. Although women constitute almost 41 per cent of the global labour force, yet the productive potential of women workers still remains grossly undermined....