-The Hindu Instead of opening a debate on the Gadgil panel's report on the Western Ghats, the government has chosen to sideline and replace it with another by an alternate group This is a challenging time in India's development history where a number of tenets of environmental governance are being questioned by the imperative of growth. Environmental governance in India is under assault, and is thus in need of both fresh thinking,...

-PTI BANGALORE: Padayatras, door-to-door campaigns and public rallies are the second choice for some senior political leaders in Karnataka who have realised the impact social media can make on people today and have quickly opened accounts on Facebook and Twitter. While social media provides politicians an additional platform to campaign, the real competition is who gets the maximum hits. Young politicians like Krishna Byregowda and Priya Krishna, both Congress, have had accounts for...

-Live Mint Lack of decentralization means municipalities lack power, resources to meet rising aspirations of ‘middle' India Othakadai, Madurai (Tamil Nadu)/Hubli (Karnataka): S. Paramasivam , president of the Othakadai panchayat, has big plans for his area. "Rainwater harvesting, removal of encroachments on roads, waste recycling, covered drainage, bigger primary health care centres and community parks," lists the 58-year-old, who has spent 30 years in the stainless steel business that dominates industry...

-The Hindustan Times Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has aptly described the persistence of mass undernutrition in India as a "national shame". What is even more shameful, however, is the passivity of the government - and of the country - towards this humanitarian emergency. The passivity begins with a reluctance to face the facts. The first step towards more effective nutrition policies in India is regular monitoring of the nutrition status of...

-The Telegraph Guwahati: The CBI is sending a team to Guwahati on Tuesday to "screen" the cases registered against fraud deposit collecting companies in the state. Press adviser to the Assam chief minister, Bharat Chandra Narah, told The Telegraph, "A CBI team will reach here on Tuesday to examine the cases and after that, we will start the formalities of handing over the cases to them." "This shows the seriousness with which the...