Then Clive Lloyd took over the West Indies cricket team, he knew he was no Garfield Sobers. Lloyd focused on infusing discipline and strategy sessions with the team. "Both exceptional leaders, Sobers led by example, while Lloyd built a team. I suspect Jairam Ramesh is more like Sobers," an environment analyst sums up his assessment of the minister. The Sobers analogy crops up, in explicit and implicit ways, in any...

There is an alarming decline in the child sex ratio Boys from district go to Kerala in search of brides A significant number of eligible boys in Erode district now travel more than 400 km to areas in Kerala to find themselves a bride. While this is more in one community, the others are slowly catching up with this trend and there is a dramatic increase in the appearance of matrimonial advertisements...

The Rural Development Ministry has allowed the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC), the apex Monitoring agency of the NREGS, to lapse on the completion of its tenure in September last year. “We have not been communicated about the reconstitution of the CEGC as yet. It will be unfair on our part to enquire about it from the ministry, as it may be considered as lobbying for re-nomination,” one of the non-official...

In a major victory for tribals of Lakhimpur Kheri living in 46 villages in and around the Dudhwa forest range, the state government has allowed them to collect forest produce required for their survival. It has also approved in principle the proposal to convert two forest villages -- Surma and Golbojhi situated in Dudhwa range into revenue villages. The tribals were fighting to get right on the forest produce since long,...

The sex ratio in Haryana has dipped again in 2010 after encouraging signs of reversal in 2009, showing that female foeticide is still prevailing across the state. The health department figures for last year show a negative trend in 17 districts in the 0-6 age group. The disclosure has forced the government to do a rethink on policies being framed to arrest the slide. According to figures available till 2010-end,...