-Down to Earth Industrial houses use tribals as fronts to amass tribal land in Chhattisgarh Ram Singh’s neighbours tease him by calling him Crorepati Singh. The 40-year-old Gond tribal from Parsada village in Raipur district of Chhattisgarh has hardly any landholding and depends on the government’s employment guarantee schemes to feed his family. But according to official documents, Singh has recently purchased land worth Rs 1.5 crore from a dozen of tribals...

-The Hindu The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) is set to take place on June 20 at Rio de Janeiro, 20 years after the 1992 Earth Summit on Environment & Development. World leaders, experts, and U.N. agencies are expected to take stock and reaffirm global commitment to sustainable development. The summit is taking place against the backdrop of threats of catastrophic climate change, unprecedented environmental degradation and widespread market...

-The Indian Express Only the names of the patients have changed. Acute encephalitis syndrome is back in Bihar, hitting the same districts as every year, its victims once again mostly children of Mahadalit communities living in various degrees of poverty, their resistance levels lowered by malnutrition and exposure to heat. And the government response has been repetitive to the point of being ritualistic. It has asked for Central assistance and set up...

-The Times of India   If you don't act now, Delhi will be starved of electricity and water in the coming years - this was the dire warning given by a group of village women, who have come to Delhi from remote areas of Uttarakhand. Their mission is to shake up the government and get it to restart work on several hydel projects in the state. There is indeed a connection with the...

-IANS The government's plan to replace the public distribution system (PDS) with direct cash transfer into people's accounts under the proposed Food Security Bill is not getting any takers, some social activists said here Friday. According to the proposal, the PDS through which subsidised foodgrains are made available to people will be replaced with direct cash subsidies where a fixed amount will be transferred into people's bank accounts each month. Talking to media...