Anna Hazare and his supporters appear to have come to an agreement with the central government over forming a joint committee to draft the Lokpal bill.  We can all agree that corruption in India is a cancer eating away at the very core of the nation. Amidst the frenzied coverage of the hunger strike, and the exclamations of support for Hazare on social networks, there has been scant discussion of...

India is trying to build a case to include agriculture in an estimated global market of $200-billion for carbon credit from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). "We are pressing for carbon credit from agriculture. The Planning Commission on principal accepted the idea in September 2010," NCCSD executive chairman Kirit N Shelat said on the sidelines of a national conference on agriculture and climate change organised by South Asia Forum for Environment...

Hunger striking Indian activist Anna Hazare has called for mass protests by his supporters against corruption. The 72-year-old campaigner is on the fourth day of a fast to push for stringent new anti-corruption laws. He wants his followers to "fill India's jails" in a mass campaign of non-violent civil disobedience on 13 April. Thousands of people have joined Mr Hazare's protest. In recent months India has been rocked by a string of corruption...

Indian social activist Anna Hazare has begun what he has called a "fast unto death" to pressure the government to act on corruption. The 72-year-old campaigner says he will refuse all food and drink until the government enacts a comprehensive anti-corruption law. The government has set up a committee to consider a bill, but Mr Hazare wants civil society included in the process. India has recently been hit by a series of high-profile...

In a disturbing trend, Jammu and Kashmir has shown a decline in the child sex ratio in 2011 Census, the figures of which would be released soon. The overall sex ratio has also gone down. While the population has been pegged at more than 1.25 crore, indicating a decadal growth of more than 23 per cent, the literacy rate has shown encouraging trends. The area of grave concern for the state would...