-Outlook At least five of the 13 coal blocks allocated when Madhu Koda was the Chief Minister of Jharkhand are under the CBI scanner for alleged irregularities in the applications submitted by the beneficiary firms. CBI sources said today preliminary investigations have shown there were alleged irregularities in the allocation of at least five coal blocks during the tenure of Koda--between September 2006 and August 2008. During the two-year period, the sources said...

-The Times of India Unwilling to risk their futures to political vagaries, corporate houses tend to hedge their bets and contribute to political parties across the spectrum. Data analyzed by the Association for Democratic Reforms and the National Election Watch has found that the trust which made the maximum contributions to political parties is the General Electoral Trust of the Aditya Birla Group, with Rs 36.46 crore to the Congress between 2003-04...

Industrialisation of agriculture creates hunger and malnutrition, destroying the food web to which we all belong. Hunger and malnutrition is manmade. It is in the design of the industrial chemical model of agriculture. And just as hunger has been created by design, producing healthy and nutritious food for all can be designed through food democracy. That is what we do in Navdanya. That is what the diverse movements for food sovereignty...

-The Hindu ICAR Director-General says India needs to produce up to 2 million tonnes of rice to feed the teeming millions India, a country that comes second after China in rice cultivation with 44 million hectares under rice, plans to increase the acreage under hybrid rice to 5 million hectares from the current 2 million hectares.   Research goals Speakers at the 6 International Hybrid Rice Symposium here on Monday said the country needed to...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: The major source of the income of political parties in India is through donations and voluntary contributions. However, majority donations comes from undisclosed contributors. According to the study conducted by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), an umbrella body of non-governmental organizations working across the country for transparency in political and electoral system, the top five political parties with the highest total income between financial year (FY)...