With the August 16 protest deadline drawing closer, the Anna Hazare team has taken its referendum on the Lokpal bill online to mobilize support and create awareness. The team has already done surveys in various parts of the country including the Chandni Chowk parliamentary constituency. The results for the Delhi poll will be announced on Monday. "We have hosted an online questionnaire to mobilize support for the Jan Lokpal Bill. The...

After sliding a mile backward into a morass, Karnataka'smining sector has just been shoved a metre forward. Since it has taken an almighty effort by the judiciary and a quasi-judicial body, the Lokayukta, to accomplish even this much, what hope is there for a sector that is vital for Karnataka's and India'sindustrial development?? Will the sector - represented by mining firms, traders, transporters, government agencies - slide back deep into...

-Express News Service   The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a chargesheet on Thursday in the Patiala House Courts against seven persons, including four MCD officials, in a case relating to corruption in the installation of street lights before the Commonwealth Games. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had floated a tender for street lighting in the city in 2008, in which, according to the CBI, the seven persons named and a...

Environmental protection within particular societies involves a complex balancing process and ordering of socio-economic priorities. In relation to other rights, where does an environmental right fit into a hierarchy of human rights and how should the conflicts with other human rights, such as right to property/ livelihood, be resolved? How to balance environmental protection with a general or collective right to economic development? Indian Courts have proceeded by balancing interests and...

In the past 50 years or so, we have come face to face with unusual climatic occurrences, weather changes and environmental disasters. These are a corollary of the global pursuit of rapid growth, in particular rapid growth of industrialisation, and very often the mindless and predatory exploitation of natural resources. These have happened across the world, without distinguishing between rich and poor nations... In the increasingly integrated world that we live...