-The Economic Times The April 28, 2012, issue of The Economist has a story on India's solar power and mentions Charanka village in Patan district, Gujarat. Solar energy can be converted into electricity, using photovoltaics, or can be converted into heat. (There are other technologies too, but those aren't important yet.) So far, solar thermal, or heating, in India has essentially meant solar cookers and water heaters, though it needn't stay that...

Remote controls are identified as technical devices which are used for various purposes ranging from the launching of space-ships to the monitoring of toy cars. But of late, these devices are being used to direct policies for nation states which are formally sovereign. We speak here of the powerful lobby of international credit rating agencies like Standard and Poor's (S&P), which has just delivered its sermon that India is no longer...

-The Telegraph Ashok Chavan, who had to quit as Maharashtra chief minister after being named in the Adarsh housing scam, faces money-laundering charges in the same case. The Enforcement Directorate has registered an enforcement case information report (ECIR) against Chavan and 13 others, stating that prima facie an offence could be constituted under Section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ECIR stated that the accused persons, who had obtained clearance...

-PTI   Spiralling international oil prices have put a strain on the country's import bill Stating that India faces "formidable" challenges on the energy front, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said spiralling international oil prices have put a strain on the country's import bill and domestic prices need to be rationalised. "With imports accounting for about 80% of our crude supplies, the spiralling prices of crude in the international market have put a...

They are also entitled to interest on solatium, additional market value Farmers whose land is acquired for a public purpose are entitled to the highest market value as compensation, the Supreme Court held on Friday. “When the land is being compulsorily taken away from a person, he is entitled to the highest value which similar land in the locality is shown to have fetched in a bona fide transaction entered into between...