-The Hindustan Times   New Delhi: As over 1.30 lakh people die in road traffic accidents every year in India, the Supreme Court on Tuesday set up a three-member panel to monitor implementation of road safety measures, including emergency medical help to accident victims. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam asked the government to extend better medical facilities made available on an experimental basis on national highways to...

-The Hindustan Times   New Delhi: In August last year, the Delhi government launched a highly subsidised food scheme to provide cheap food grain to the most vulnerable households in the city. Seven months on, middleclass families with cars and an annual income above Rs. 1 lakh are also seeking to illegally benefit from the scheme. In phase 2 of the programme, Delhi's food and supplies department received 15.54 lakh applications (catering to...

-The Hindustan Times     Tembhli, Nandurbar: She got the country's first Aadhaar card. But after around four years, Ranjana Sonawane is disillusioned. "We have no money. No jobs. Just a card," she says. "How will I eke out a living with a card?" On September 29, 2010, Ranjana and nine other tribal residents of Tembhli village in Nandurbar district, Maharashtra, were given the cards at the launch of the Aadhaar programme by...

A new report entitled: The World of Organic Agriculture: Statistics and Emerging Trends 2014 by Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) says that out of the 19 lakh organic producers in the entire world during 2012, nearly 6 lakh (i.e. roughly 32 percent) are from India (see below figure 1 and link). But a grim fact is that while the rest...

-The Hindustan Times   Nearly one-and-a-half years after it banned mining in Goa, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed an annual cap of 20 million tonnes of iron ore extraction in the state. The final capacity that will be allowed to be mined in the state will be decided by an expert panel within the next six months. A special forest bench headed by Justice AK Patnaik said the panel would also advise...