On the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, India announced that it would go ahead with the planned nuclear power plant at Jaitapur, Maharashtra. Even the media, which could have kept up the pressure on the government, dismissed the protests by the local people in Jaitapur as one incited by the Shiv Sena and so not worthy of any attention. While I am no Sena supporter, it is difficult...

The government on Monday proposed a roadmap for time-bound redressal of grievances under the landmark Right to Education Act. The move comes three weeks after the country's apex watchdog for the law raised concerns about the absence of such a mechanism. The human resource development ministry on Monday discussed with states the proposal to set up a detailed grievance redressal mechanism for the law, with specific authorities and timeframe to...

The Union Agriculture Ministry has nominated scientists belonging to the ICAR and state agricultural universities as resource-persons in 70 districts of eastern India in an attempt to give a fillip to the Centre's ambitious programme of extending the benefits of green revolution to the region. With paddy and rice production in Punjab and Haryana showing signs of plateauing, the government has been forced to turn its gaze towards the eastern states...

A transparent assessment of the costs and risks associated with India's ambitious nuclear plans must be made before any ground is broken at Jaitapur or elsewhere. You really have to hand it to the nuclear industry. In any other sphere of the economy, a major industrial disaster is likely to have adverse, long-term financial consequences for the company or companies whose product or activity was involved in the accident, regardless of...

A three-day Tarapur-Jaitapur anti-nuclear plant yatra was stopped the moment it began and hundreds of activists were detained at Boisar in this district on Saturday. Activists and supporters, including Justices (retired) B G Kolse-Patil and P.B. Sawant, social activist Vaishali Patil, and Admiral (retd) L Ramdas, were whisked away in police vans from Panchmarg Tarapur, where they had addressed a public meeting in the morning. They were brought to the Boisar...