Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh is seeking doubling of funds for water supply and sanitation programmes to Rs 20,000 crore in the upcoming budget, arguing that it is high time the Centre focused on this neglected sector. Ramesh, who holds the additional charge of the ministry of drinking water and sanitation, has indicated that he is unwilling to settle for anything short of Rs 16,000 crore. The finance ministry has, so...
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Farmers oppose land acquisition by Syed Rizwanullah
Farmers and activists affiliated to different social organizations joined hands on Thursday to oppose land acquisition by the government for the proposed Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor, under which 10,000 hectares land would be acquired for setting up four mega industrial projects in the district. "The activists have planned a meet at Bidkin, about 20 km from the city, on February 11 to chalk out the future course of action. Narmada Bachao Andolan...
More »‘Areva reactor meets advanced safety requirements' by R Ramachandran
There will be no additional cost to the EPR 1650 MWe Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR), a Generation III+ nuclear reactor developed by Areva of France, in complying with the additional safety requirements recommended by the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) in its Complementary Safety Assessment (CSA) report submitted in January. This was stated by Dr. Bernard Bigot, Chairman of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), at a...
More »Himalayan Resilience by Ratna Bharali Talukdar
-Eastern Panorama It’s been almost two months since a 6.9 magnitude earthquake left the Himalayan state of Sikkim devastated. Nine families of Ralak village in Tingchim Mangshilla Gram Panchayat in the North District of Sikkim are still living in make shift relief camps with the mothers cuddling their children under blankets to give them comfort and warmth in the cold November nights. As snow has already covered the mountains visible from...
More »Twin gains from 2G verdict by MJ Antony
The power of judicial review envelopes natural resource distribution The tsunami created by the 2G spectrum judgments of the the Supreme Court last week has almost mopped up the ripples they made in the legal sphere. However, they deserve respectful consideration for their discussion on two hot issues that have been agitating public mind in recent years. The first is the nature and ownership of natural resources, like air waves and spectrum,...
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