Former Union home secretary G.K. Pillai’s statement that Akhil Gogoi is not a Maoist and that his arrest was an overreaction may have come as a huge relief to the RTI activist but it has also reflected a disconnect between Delhi and Dispur. An official source here told The Telegraph today that the disconnect has come out in the open over the observations being made by both the governments over the...

Large parts of India that already face chronic food shortages are staring at further, climate change induced food insecurity by 2050, new research by a global partnership of agricultural research institutions has found. Researchers at the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) have found a worrying match between regions that are most likely to face climate change induced reduction in crop yield, and areas that already suffer from chronic...

-The Telegraph   Eighteen babies aged between two days and 11 months died at Bengal’s apex referral hospital for children in 36 hours since Tuesday night, serving Mamata Banerjee a reminder about the gravity of the problems she faces in health care. On an average, five to six children die every day at the 360-bed BC Roy Post-Graduate Institute for Paediatric Sciences, Phoolbagan. The sudden rise in number revived memories of November...

The State's public education system faces the threat of dilution from several quarters. WHEN a national law is finally in place to ensure that not a single child is out of school, there is a growing concern in Kerala, which already has a well-established, though languishing, public education system, about the United Democratic Front (UDF) government's moves to sanction a large number of private, unaided schools. The decision to issue no...

Agrees to consider five coal blocks to be moved from “no-go” to “go” zone In a further breakdown of his vaunted “no-go zone” concept to prevent mining in heavily forested areas, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has agreed to consider five coal blocks in the forests of Orissa to be moved from the “no-go” to “go” zone. Interestingly, the decision comes on a day when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted that he had...