-The Hindu The area will turn into a ‘no-go zone' for mining and thermal power plants The Environment Ministry has decided to turn approximately 60,000 square kilometres of the Western Ghats across six States into an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), banning mining, quarrying, thermal power plants and polluting industries over the entire range. All other projects would be allowed only with the prior consent of gram sabhas (village councils) in the zone. The...

-The Hindustan Times Last winter, two men were hanged to death in India's jails, indicted for crimes of terror. On August 8, another man, Maganlal Barela- a little-known tribal cultivator, charged with killing his five little daughters - was scheduled to hang in the Jabalpur Central Jail. Human rights lawyers chanced to read of his hanging in an online news item the evening before his execution was fixed, and rushed to meet...

-The Business Standard Says electronic payments can help manage FRAud and leakage risks in government payment programmes The role that technology plays in the economy has become so integral that it can't be ignored, said a recent report by the World Bank. According to the report, electronic payments can save over one per cent of India's gross domestic product (GDP). "Cash may still be king at times, but compared with electronic payments, cash...

-Outlook     India lacks the political will to put an end to manual scavenging   When Meena decided to go to school, her mother identified one quite far from her home. Sharda was a manual scavenger and knew that her occupation could spell trouble for her daughter. Meena went to a government school and struggled to reach class VIII. But her ambition was cut short when teachers and the principal at the school...

-The Telegraph The human resource development ministry today rejected a demand by two state education ministers that the Centre FRAme a national policy prescribing a uniform salary structure for schoolteachers in states and rules for recruiting them. At a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education, the highest advisory body on education that has state education ministers as members, Chhattisgarh's Brijmohana Agrawal and Bihar's P.K. Shahi said the HRD ministry should...