-PTI Terming mining as the "greatest threat" faced by the tribal community in last two decades, Tribal Affairs Minister Kishore Chandra Deo has asked the youths selected under an ambitious programme to create awareness among the forest dwellers about their constitutional rights over the land.  "Today the greatest threat that has come to the tribals and people living in forest areas is actually the threat of mining," the Minister told the youths...

Experts agree that the economic and environmental costs of interlinking India's rivers far outweigh its projected benefits. Some people believe it is the one-stop solution to prevent floods and droughts, reduce water scarcity, raise irrigation potential and increase foodgrain production in the country. But others say it is just another grandiose scheme involving huge costs and leading to long-term ecological consequences. The contentious idea of interlinking India's rivers has come...

The ministry of agriculture has advised all state government agencies to streamline the seed certification process to facilitate farmers in choosing high yielding seeds at a reasonable cost. The agencies have been advised to ask private companies to select four to five of their high yielding varieties while seeking certification, and bring both older and new verities. According to officials, private seed certification agencies usually come up with 20-25 varieties, annually, for...

High courts have failed to adhere to the Central Information Commission's directive to follow the Right to Information (RTI) Act rulebook. CIC, the final appellate authority for RTI Act, had ordered all the high courts to disclose complete information of the organisation, employees, salaries drawn, decisions taken and budget allocated, on their websites by April 1. However, not a single high court has complied with the direction. In January, CIC Satyananda...

-DNA   Having provided forest land rights to just one in five tribals, Gujarat ranks a poor 12th in issuing forest land rights to the tribal population. As against 1,91,592 claims received for seeking forest land rights, the government distributed title deeds among 39,784 applicants, i.e. 20.76% of the claimants. This was after The Forest Rights Act 2006 was enacted and its rules framed in the year 2007. Of the total claims received by...