-The Hindu India’s leaders must recommit themselves to the ideas and activism of environmentalists involved with Uttarakhand Following flash floods at Chamoli in Uttarakhand, defence personnel are looking for missing persons in a mélange of rock, mud, water, and debris, airlifting rations to inaccessible villages, and repairing bridges and telecommunication networks. Social scientists are assessing the disaster’s impact on the region’s economy. Scientists and policy makers are debating whether climate change or...

-The Hindu Despite official policy, OBC, SC and ST applicants less likely to gain admission as compared to those from General Categories Chennai: Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe applicants are half as likely to get selected for a Ph.D. programme at leading IITs in the country as aspirants from the General Category (GC) are. Data collated from a series of RTI applications, including from The Hindu, on the number of applicants versus the...

-The Hindu The need of the hour is to invest in long-term crisis response mechanisms and resilience solutions Days after a glacier burst in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand caused flash floods, the scientific community is still struggling to understand what triggered the disaster. At the time of writing this article, the death toll was 34 with more than 170 people missing. The floods have also caused heavy damage to public and...

-The Hindu Allowing a scribe for candidate not largesse, says bench The government is not conferring a “largesse” on disabled people by facilitating a scribe during the course of the Civil Services Examination, the Supreme Court held in a judgment on Thursday. The Union Public Service Commission and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), by allowing a scribe, are not allowing them a “PRIvilege”, a Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud declared...

-Livemint.com * With this, farmers will be able to save more than ₹1 trillion annually on fuel cost, which will help them to improve their livelihood, Nitin Gadkari said * It is safer as CNG tanks come with a tight seal, which reduces the possibility of explosion while refueling or in the event of a spill, the minister said New Delhi: Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday launched India’s...