-Outlook Getting down to business soon after taking over, Environment Minister M Veerappa Moily today directed a review of a controversial report on Western Ghats which had earned his predecessor Jayanthi Natarajan the wrath of political parties and religious groups from Kerala. Moily, who took charge as Environment Minister today, asked six Western Ghats range states-- Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat to examine various recommendations of the High Level...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Launching a probe in a deal done during NDA regime, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a preliminary enquiry against Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal and unknown officials in connection with alleged irregularities in the disinvestment of Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL). Agency suspects that the loss caused to the exchequer due to the alleged irregularities runs into hundreds of crores of rupees due...

-Economic and Political Weekly   While the transformation of rural gender inequalities was not an intended Goal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, this study draws on evidence from two villages in western Tamil Nadu to show how the scheme has benefited rural women in particular. Major attractions of the MGNREGA work include local availability through the year, it being perceived as relatively "easy" work with fixed, regular, gender...

-The Times of India Days after Akhilesh Yadav urged the media "to go and assess... at the ground level yourself", TOI visited a relief camp for the Muzaffarnagar riot-hit and found the conditions as wretched as before SC's rap to the UP govt for the dismal conditions LOI (Muzaffarnagar): Life is cheap at the riot victims' camp here. In the past weeks, 11 children have died here; 74 pregnant women, 24 in...

-The Business Standard Policymaking in India is more often than not credited for its high nuisance value, rather than for positively aiding growth. Whether oil & gas, power, mining or any other core sector of the economy, government policy has frequently hampered rather than assisted the positive development of these industries. There is however one segment of the renewable energy space - solar power, that's vastly benefitted from concerted government action...