-PTI   India should move on to make nuclear energy as safe as possible by taking lessons from the recent Fukushima accident but its imperative to replace the old-era Land Acquisition Act with a more balanced one, to address the country's present huge infrastructure and energy needs, former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman M R Srinivasan said here. Stating that the resettlement was equally significant in any infrastructure project, he said India's record of...

The Planning Commission has raised concerns over people migrating from the countryside to cities in search of jobs. The Plan panel says that this ‘distress migration’ is mainly due to delayed disbursement of wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MGNREGA. It has asked the rural development ministry to expressly strengthen the Business Correspondent model to make payments to workers under the flagship welfare scheme. In the...

The BJP has slammed the Centre for mishandling Anna Hazare’s protest but signalled that it is not entirely on the side of the agitators and will take a nuanced stance on their demands. The party said it rejected Hazare’s Jan Lokpal bill, would not take dictations from the Gandhian and his associates on a deadline to pass the bill and would not circumvent parliamentary procedures. The government has convened a meeting of...

-IANS   Talks between the government and Team Anna continued to be hindered by three 'sticking issues' Wednesday, when Anna Hazare's fast for a strong Lokpal bill entered the ninth day amid concerns that his health was deteriorating and time was running out. 'Another round of talks are on between Salman Khurshid (law minister) and Team Anna,' former police officer and Team Anna member Bedi tweeted ahead of an all-party meeting on the...

The substitution of one man for the people, and the reduction of the people's role merely to being supporters and cheerleaders for one man's actions, is antithetical to democracy. The Central government's flip-flops on Anna Hazare are obvious: it went from abusing him (through the Congress spokesperson) for sheltering corruption, to extolling him for his idealism; from arresting him, without any justification, and getting him remanded to judicial custody for a...