-The Hindu Mining companies have received favourable impact assessments even as they do great damage to the environment because regulators are willing to look the other way Last week, world leaders concerned about economic development got together at the International Monetary Fund, and gave a series of most instructive interviews. Our Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, said that his problem was the slowing down of India's economic growth and reduction in government revenues....

-The Hindustan Times The double standards are clear. In 2012, the US provided $100 billion for domestic food aid, up from the $95 billion it spent on feeding its 67 million undernourished population in 2010 including spending on food coupons and other supplementary nutrition programmes. In India, the Food Bill is expected to cost $20 billion and will feed an estimated 850 million people. Against an average supply of 358kg/person of...

-The Hindu A warmer world may be leading to a delayed withdrawal of the Indian monsoon, hitting crop yield and affecting the Livelihoods of small farmers and agricultural workers The joys of a bountiful southwest monsoon are increasingly changing to anxiety as the rains unseasonally drag on in many parts of India. "The normal rains should be from June 1 to mid-September. In fact it usually reduces by August 15, and is...

-The Hindu     "Workers may take their families with them when they leave" BHUBANESWAR: The large-scale devastation caused by cyclone Phailin in Odisha's Ganjam district is expected to trigger ‘distress migration' of hordes of affected people to faraway places such as Chennai, Mumbai, Goa, Surat and Ahmedabad. Experts on migration and activists working on the ground warned that the flight of workers was imminent from Ganjam, which traditionally sends half a million migrant labourers...

-The Hindu Hyderabad: Not a single mandal in the city could achieve the distinction of retaining all the students at a single school till the end of the five-year elementary education, latest figures from the Rajiv Vidya Mission (RVM) reveal. Data of district-wise student retention rates at the elementary level has revealed that the city has zero mandals with 100 per cent student retention. Mahabubnagar is the only other district sharing...