In a jaw-dropping move, the Uttar Pradesh government has converted 2,367 sq km of the countryside along the Yamuna Expressway, connecting Greater Noida with Agra , into urban land. In a country where policy to create new towns has not ventured beyond the 50 sq km allowed as the maximum area of a Special Economic Zone, this is welcome. But not so, the manner in which the changed land-use is going...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Indian delegation of NGOs has its say at Cancun
The team took part in side events, held ralliesAlso highlighted the significance of small-holderA delegation of non-government organisations assembled under the banner “Beyond Copenhagen” has returned here from Cancun, Mexico, after making interventions for bringing agricultural and food security issues to the mainstream climate negotiations at the 16 {+t} {+h} U.N. Climate Summit. The team took part in the side events, held rallies and lobbied with negotiators during the much...
More »Extreme world: Is Sweden as clean as it seems?
The world is a more corrupt place now than it was three years ago, a poll suggests.Some 56% of people interviewed by Transparency International said their country had become more corrupt.In Afghanistan, Nigeria, Iraq and India more than 50% of people said they had paid a bribe in the past year - many of them paying off the police.Meanwhile, a BBC poll suggests that corruption is the world's most talked...
More »Scams deprive poor of health care, education: Pitroda
The Rs. 1.76 lakh-crore 2G spectrum scam has deprived the 400 million people below the poverty line (BPL) of their rightful share in healthcare and education, said Adviser to Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations Sam Pitroda.Addressing the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) convention here on Friday, Mr. Pitroda said freedom from poverty was not possible with scams siphoning off resources.Mr. Pitroda was conferred the INAE Lifetime...
More »As climate-change talks continue, lack of consensus spurs smaller-scale actions by Juliet Eilperin and William Booth
In response to growing frustration that the U.N. climate negotiations are not producing real-world results, individual nations, states and business are cobbling together patchwork solutions to preserve forests, produce clean Energy and scrub pollution from the air.Under this new approach, businesses in California will offset their greenhouse gas emissions by funding tropical forest preservation in Mexico and Brazil; Japan will help pay for nuclear power plants in developing nations; and...
More »