Production this year likely to be 24.5 million tonnes, compared to internal demand of 23 MT The Centre has allowed export of 5 lakh tonnes of sugar. It has asked sugar mills to register themselves for seeking the Release Order for exports under Open General Licence (OGL). They have been allowed to export raw, white and refined sugar, but no export subsidy will be given. Export only from new output The OGL export...

Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh announced on Monday that the government would amend the colonial period legislation – Indian Forest Act, 1927 – to curtail the powers given to forest department to foist criminal cases against tribals. "We are bringing about amendments to the Indian Forest Act in order to ensure that these large number of cases are not foisted on tribal communities people who are going into forests daily...

The sentencing of Dr. Binayak Sen involves unverified charges, and unreasonable and unconstitutional findings. The constitutional validity of the charges of sedition and conspiracy that were used to implicate rights activists such as Binayak Sen merely for their anti-establishment political thoughts needs to be challenged. The action ridicules the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression. The sections of the Indian Penal Code that deal with “conspiracy to wage war against the government”...

Safai karmacharis are set to end their two-decade-long movement for a life of dignity on a victorious note. DECEMBER 31, 2010. As revellers across the world prepare to celebrate the end of the first decade of the new millennium and the start of a new year, a million women across India will be celebrating not the end of a calendar year but the end of a centuries-old degrading and inhuman...

Some 10 lakh to 30 lakh migrant labourers take up skilled or semi-skilled work in Kerala. THE State Bank of India has a branch near the Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram, in a by-lane on the avenue leading to the Kowdiar Palace, the residence of the former maharajas of Travancore. It is a cosy little place on the first floor of a nondescript building, and the clientele includes the rich and...