-The Times of India   If you don't act now, Delhi will be starved of electricity and water in the coming years - this was the dire warning given by a group of village women, who have come to Delhi from remote areas of Uttarakhand. Their mission is to shake up the government and get it to restart work on several hydel projects in the state. There is indeed a connection with the...

-The Hindu The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) is set to take place on June 20 at Rio de Janeiro, 20 years after the 1992 Earth Summit on Environment & Development. World leaders, experts, and U.N. agencies are expected to take stock and reaffirm global commitment to sustainable development. The summit is taking place against the backdrop of threats of catastrophic climate change, unprecedented environmental degradation and widespread market...

-Live Mint To maintain his constant stream of RTI petitions, Agrawal says he gets ideas from day-to-day observations, news reports, government insiders, whistle-blowers and journalists. In the summer of 1985, a cloth merchant in Chandni Chowk, the crowded market in the old quarters of Delhi, received a call in response to a letter he had written to the papers asking why his favourite weekly television serial, Rajani, could not be aired daily...

-IANS The government's plan to replace the public distribution system (PDS) with direct cash transfer into people's accounts under the proposed Food Security Bill is not getting any takers, some social activists said here Friday. According to the proposal, the PDS through which subsidised foodgrains are made available to people will be replaced with direct cash subsidies where a fixed amount will be transferred into people's bank accounts each month. Talking to media...

-The Telegraph An “urban-rural divide” seemed to unfold within the government today as rural development minister Jairam Ramesh appeared to take on his urban development counterpart Kamal Nath after the Centre included Chhindwara under the Integrated Action Plan for Maoist-affected areas. According to the home ministry, Chhindwara, Kamal Nath’s constituency in Madhya Pradesh, is not under Maoist influence. Ramesh said some districts not affected by the Maoist menace had been brought under the...