The income and asset details furnished by ministers to Prime Minister’s Office for 2009-10 have some surprising claims. Textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran, whose family owns a media empire, is worth just Rs 6.87 crore. His assets include a Mercedes E class valued at Rs 8.10 lakh and a Toyota Innova at Rs 12.24 lakh. He is not the only who has modest assets. Minister of new and renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah...
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"Perfect Storm" Spurred 2007-08 Food Crisis, Study Says by Matthew O Berger
Rising food prices have not yet reached crisis levels but they are expected to remain very volatile for about the next decade, researchers said Thursday. The conclusions were based on a new study of the factors that contributed to the 2007-08 food crisis, which researchers hope will shed light on what actions might be taken to avoid food crises in the future. "There were many suspects for what caused the crisis, but...
More »Project to improve dams in State to be taken up in 2011-12 by T Ramakrishnan
The World Bank-funded Rs.745-crore Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP), covering 104 dams in the State, will be launched in the next financial year (2011-2012). Of the total number of dams, 66 belong to the Water Resources Department (WRD) of the Public Works Department (PWD) and 38 to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO), successor-entity of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board. In the first year, 18 dams — WRD's...
More »Damning audit by Purnima S Tripathi
The CAG indicts Uttarakhand for pursuing hydel power projects indiscriminately without concern for the environment. IN a severe indictment of the Uttarakhand government, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India said it was pushing the State towards a major environmental catastrophe by following a highly ambitious hydropower policy. In a report titled “Performance Audit of Hydropower Development Through Private Sector Participation”, which was released recently, the CAG substantiates the allegations...
More »Hunger alarm by TK Rajalakshmi
The Global Hunger Index report paints a gloomy picture of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. WITH the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals just five years away, the 2010 Global Hunger Index report prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) paints a gloomy picture of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Some 29 countries in these regions, it says, have levels of hunger that are alarming or extremely alarming....
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