Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh was heckled by farmers and others opposing Bt Brinjal at a public meeting on the introduction of the genetically modified (GM) vegetable in the country by a US multinational. Ramesh was greeted with protests when he arrived at the Central Research Institute for Dryland Farming on the outskirts of this city for the meeting on Sunday. Scores of protestors, including farmers, activists...

A man who claimed he accepted a supari (contract) of Rs 1 lakh to kill RTI activist Satish Shetty but backed out when he realised his target was “working for the benefit of the common man” led police in Pune to an advocate who has been arrested in connection with the Shetty murder case. Pune rural police today sought court permission for brain-mapping and a narco test on advocate Vijay...

Bombay High Court today noted the rise in murderous attacks on social activists and asked the state police chief to report within a week what the government was doing to protect them. Yesterday, Right to Information (RTI) activist Satish Shetty, 38, was stabbed to death by two attackers close to his home at Talegaon Dabhade near Pune, where he had exposed a series of land scams. Last week, two gunmen had fired...

BERHAMPUR: Justice seems to be eluding a 78-year-old woman, Padma Maharana, of Komand village under Rabha police station in Ganjam district. The senior citizen has become a destitute in her own land. She was ‘driven’ away from her village in 2002 by a group of miscreants who eyed her wealth. Having no way-out she moved to Bhubaneswar to continue her legal battle against the miscreants. The miscreants had also allegedly looted her...

Roads “as smooth as Hema Malini’s cheeks” was a promise that Lalu Yadav had once given to the people of Bihar. Ironically, it is his rival Nitish Kumar who seems to be delivering on that front. Despite three years of floods followed by a year of drought, ‘backward and benighted’ Bihar reports a miraculous figure: 11% GDP growth, second only to Gujarat. The state’s economy has never grown so fast...