-The Telegraph In her recent book, Green Wars, the environmental journalist Bahar Dutt, writes: "The editor of a leading media house, everytime I pitched a green story, would invariably complain: ‘Environmentalism is stalling growth; all I am interested in is double-digit growth for this country.'" The idea that environmental protection and economic progress are at odds is widely held among India's elite. It is shared by newspaper editors, economists, businessmen, and, not...

-PTI New Delhi: After the recent failure of WTO talks, India on Wednesday hoped that by September it will convince the multi-lateral trading body about the need for developing nations to give subsidies on food stocks so that it is relieved of the "draconian sword". Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitaraman told Rajya Sabha that the tough position adopted by India and the recent talks in Geneva had been supported by many least developed...

-IANS NEW DELHI: Less than 1 per cent of the disabled children in India are enrolled in the schools, parliament was informed on Monday. "The report of the National Right to Education (RTE) Forum Delhi and Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) India shows that enrollment of disabled children in schools is less than 1 percent," Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. Irani...

-The Hindu In 2009-10, 33% of PDS off-take of kerosene diverted for non-household use: report The findings of a confidential report, commissioned by the government and accessed exclusively by The Hindu, have revealed that allocated expenditures of social spending programmes are not reaching intended users and confirm leakages due to corruption. The capitation fees collected by private colleges, on management quota seats in professional courses, last year was around Rs 5,953 crore, the...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The emphasis on use of digital technologies to bridge the "rural-urban gap" in the union budget is limited to high talk and minimal allocations. The need for a more comprehensive and peoples' participation-oriented rural action plan should have been the focus while setting sectoral allocations, but that is not to be in this mid-year budget. Vipul Mudgal (vipulmudgal@gmail.com) heads the Inclusive Media for Change project at the Centre...