-The Business Standard The Union ministry of rural development proposes to introduce flexibility in implementation of its flagship programmes across the country. Minister Jairam Ramesh said, “In a phased manner, 50 per cent of the funds earmarked for rural development programmes will be transferred to state governments to implement the schemes as per their requirements, subject to broad guidelines. The rest of the funds will be spent as per the national guidelines...

-PTI Eight months ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls, the cyber space has become a battlefield between supporters of tech-savvy Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his opponents.  Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, blogs, e-mails, websites, video uploading sites and every possible avenue on the internet is being used to attract the attention of the net-savvy, especially youths, towards Modi.  His opponents, chiefly the Congress, which calls him an "internet manipulator"...

75% of the youth. Every third student. 65% of all families in Punjab are in the throes of a sweeping drug addiction. With little or no hope in sight. THE RAILWAY barrier in Angarh, a locality in the border city of Amritsar in Punjab signals the end of too many things. The rule of law. The reign of sense. The fear of crime. The signs of normality. Even the divisions of...

The government says area under forests has been increasing for the last 13 years. ET finds this is the outcome of statistical jugglery and the use of flawed definitions by India's forest bureaucracy. The bald truth is India's forests are in serious decline, both in numbers and in health. In February, the latest instalment of a little environmental kabuki played out when the Forest Survey of India released its biennial report...

The agitation against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant can be seen as a case of activism gone berserk. The high-octane drama against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu has wound down. The seven-month-long agitation led by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) at Idinthakarai village in Tirunelveli district, demanding the closure of the ready-to-be commissioned project, ended on March 27 when S.P. Udayakumar, PMANE convener, called off...