West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee may have complained of inheriting empty coffers from the Left Front government that ruled the state for 34 years, but cold statistics reveals that it created a base for her to build upon. During the last few years of the Left rule, Bengal witnessed rapid industrialization. Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee steered the state to fourth position in terms of rapid growth of industry...

-Express News Service   A team of 13 research scholars from the Centre for Sustainable Technologies, IISc, will now conduct environmental service enhancement assessments at the national level starting from June. These scholars have conducted a study on environmental service enhancement and conservation and vulnerability reduction at Chitradurga district. "Talks are on to start the assessment by the last week of June at Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya. Discussions are...

The food ministry is set to oppose the mandatory 5% ethanol blending programme, fearing diversion of foodgrain for manufacture of ethanol. The ministry has called for the report of the expert panel headed by Planning Commission member Saumitra Chaudhuri in order to "review" the programme. The petroleum ministry was expected to soon send the report to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for a final decision after factoring in the dissent notes...

It is the improper mode of application, violating the law and regulations, that is responsible for the apparent adverse toxic effects of endosulfan. FROM a scientific perspective, an extremely pertinent question in the endosulfan story is why adverse health effects similar to those seen in the villages of Kasaragod district in Kerala have not been reported from other parts of the country where the pesticide is used in much larger...

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a criminal case against the Andhra Pradesh police on the charge that Central Committee member of the CPI (Maoist) Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad and freelance journalist Hemchandra Pandey were killed by them in cold blood on July 2, 2010. The case was registered on Thursday on directions from the Supreme Court that heard petitions from social worker Swami Agnivesh and Hemchandra Pandey's wife Bineeta...