-The Hindu Intelligent management of ecosystems can help to turn local economies around and give destitute households a chance to increase their incomes Protecting biodiversity is humanity’s insurance policy against the unprecedented biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation which has occurred in recent decades, undermining the very foundations of life on earth. This is why this week’s 11th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad, which India is hosting, is...

-The Hindu Union Railway Minister C.P. Joshi has announced the decision to constitute a Rail Tariff Authority, based on which the next hike in passenger fares and freight rates will be effected. The Tariff Authority is an attempt at insulating the Railways from various hikes being effected by the government, including on fuel price, which officials regard as having made the operation of the Railways in the current situation unviable. Addressing the Economic...

-PTI UNITED NATIONS: The UPA government that has been facing brickbats from the opposition parties has got a compliment from BJP leader L K Advani for its flagship programme, MGNREGA, which he said has helped empower rural people and revive economic growth. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), enacted in August 2005, has been touted as a flagship programme by the UPA government. Advani said the scheme is the largest cash...

-Outlook Altogether 1.8 million children have been affected in the floods and struggling daily to meet their basic needs such as food, water, medicare and education during the past three months in Assam, as per an estimate of an internationally active NGO. "Out of the total affected population of 4.89 million, the number of children was 1.8 million and many of them were affected twice," 'Save the Children' Chief Executive Officer Thomas...

-The Hindu Children form main part of workforce in Murshidabad Dolly Khatun was about five-year-old when she first handled bidis, helping her mother with odd jobs like fetching and carrying the ingredients from the village vendor and returning the finished bundles, cutting the kendu leaves into strips and counting the rolled bidis into a bunch. Within a couple of years, she was fully TRAIned and over the past 10 years she has...