-The Hindu Women continue to be invisible to planners, despite their high levels of contribution to the national economy, says a UN Women paper on women and forests Some of the present policies in forest management are detrimental to the poor, particularly women, states a UN Women paper by NC Saxena, member National Advisory Council, even as he suggests changes that could ameliorate their condition. Despite economic growth, gender inequalities in “critical human development...

-Outlook Chennai: Attempting to capitalise on 300 clear sunny days available in the state annually, Tamil Nadu government today unveiled a new solar energy policy, envisaging to produce over 3000 MW of power, exclusively from solar power, in the next three years. Christened as 'Tamil Nadu Solar Energy Policy 2012,' the new initiative of the Jayalalithaa government, with a slew of encouraging features, finds opportunity in the rapidly declining solar power costs...

-PTI INDORE: Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court has asked Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the Treasure Island scam case here, involving former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, and report back within six months. The order was passed by the division bench of Justices P K Jaisawal and Moolchand Garg on Thursday, said advocate Dr Manohar Dalal, counsel for petitioner Mahesh Garg. According to advocate Dalal, the HC asked the CBI...

-The Times of India The income tax department on Thursday carried out searches on the offices of infrastructure major GMR, which has developed the Delhi international airport among several other large projects. Officials said searches were undertaken across several GMR offices in Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad on suspicion that the company had not disclosed all financial information. The operations were underway till late in the evening but details were sketchy. The order...

-The Guardian  Oxfam calls on World Bank to stop backing foreign investors who acquire land for biofuels that could produce food International land investors and biofuel producers have taken over land around the world that could feed nearly 1 billion people. Analysis by Oxfam of several thousand land deals completed in the last decade shows that an area eight times the size of the UK has been left idle by speculators or is...