-The Indian Express   Three weeks before Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai was stopped from travelling to London where she was to speak on the alleged violation of forest rights of tribals in the Mahan coal block area of Madhya Pradesh, the Ministry of Environment and Forests asked the Ministry of Coal not to auction the block as it is "located in inviolate forest area". Pillai was stopped at Delhi airport on January 11...

-NDTV Lucknow: Some of India's biggest politicians contested and won the Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh. But eight months later, they have not spent anything from their Local Area Development Fund (MPLAD). On the list of high-profile MPs from Uttar Pradesh who have spent not a rupee yet from their constituency funds are Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi,...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Amendments proposed by the previous Congress-led union government to the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 had the potential of improving upon this progressive legislation. Unfortunately, with its successor pursuing different priorities, the possibility of the amendments being passed remains rather low. Kamal Nayan Choubey (kamalnayanchoubey@gmail.com) is with the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. A bill for an amendment to the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas)...

-Business Standard On the basis of resource-efficiency, pollution and compliance, state-owned power generation firms fare the worst A staggering 90 per cent of coal-based thermal power plants in India fare unsatisfactorily on the environmental front, shows a recent analysis. While state-owned power generation companies are among the worst performers, plants owned by private firms have performed better on environmental and energy parameters. In a report released by the Centre for Science...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: Of the 76 talukas that comprise Marathwada, 61 show a drop in ground water levels compared to the previous year's post-monsoon data. But with monsoon 2015 having provided just over 53 per cent of the already poor average rainfall of 779 mm in the region, the dip in ground water levels is hardly surprising. The more alarming news, say officials, is the continuing dip in water tables in...