Union Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi on Friday maintained that the Centre was set to increase the wage rate paid under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), but it was for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to address the issues raised by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Dr. Joshi said it was not for him to react to the recommendation made to Dr. Singh by Ms. Gandhi — in her...

The government must stop dilly-dallying over the project and apply the law regardless of the fact that it is India's single largest foreign investment proposal. TWO giant metallurgical projects, both in Orissa. Both promoted by big multinational corporations with tremendous influence. Both opposed by environmental and tribal rights activists because they would displace vulnerable people and destroy fragile ecosystems. Both backed strongly by State-level and national lobbies that claim they...

The rural poor in Andhra Pradesh, a State showcased as a model for SHG-bank linkage, are caught in the vortex of microfinance. WITHIN a decade of their coming into operation, microfinance institutions (MFIs) have dealt a serious blow to the economy and the well-being of thousands of families in rural Andhra Pradesh. Harassment by their collection agents has allegedly driven at least 60 borrowers to death, and the number is...

A bill to put in place the proposed biotechnology regulator is likely to be taken up for consideration by the Cabinet at its meeting on Thursday. The proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) seeks to replace the existing multiple mechanisms that are operating under different administrative ministries. The proposed bill — initially prepared in 2008 — has been now revised substantially. The proposed authority will now deal only with safety...

Even as the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment — dubbed “the Indian Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)” — released its first report on the impact of climate change in four regions of the country, it admitted that significant research gaps and lack of extensive databases were hampering Indian climate science. Long-term localised data was not available on vegetation and forest cover, socio-economic trends, farm inputs, pests and crop diseases,...