-PTI NEW DELHI: In a blow to brick-kiln industry and road contractors, the National Green Tribunal has banned digging of earth across the country for making bricks and roads without prior environment clearance (EC). A bench headed by Justice P Jyothimani has directed the chief secretaries of all the states and union territories to ensure that its interim order is adhered to. "We restrain any person, company and authority to carry out any...

-PTI Gorakhpur: Ten more children have succumbed to encephalitis at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in last 24 hours, taking the death toll due to the disease to 319 in eastern district of Uttar pradesh this year. The deceased include three children from Gorakhpur, two from Maharajganj and one child each from Deoria, Kushinagar, Sant Kabirnagar and Siddharthanagar districts of eastern UP, while one child from adjoining Bihar also succumbed to the...

-The Hindustan Times About 1.98 lakh farmers committed suicide in India between 2001 and 2012 as the benefits of high growth failed to trickle down to the rural areas, says the India Rural Development Report 2012-13 released on Thursday. Indebtedness and lenders confiscating land have been attributed as the main causes of the farmers' deaths. Around two-third of the farmer suicides were reported from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Depicting the...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Area under kharif crops has grown by about 10-lakh hectare during the week ending on September 27th. The total sown area, as per reports received from states, stands at 1047.07 lakh hectare as compared to 993.99 hectare at this time last year and 1038.27 lakh hectare on September 20 this year. As per the India Meteorological Department the withdrawal line of southwest monsoon continue to pass through...

-The Hindustan Times Just 81 districts in India accounted for more than one-third of child mortality below five years of age in 2012 and half of these deaths were of girls, a new study published in the international journal Lancet has said. The black spots for the Indian children are widespread with even districts in well-off states like Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka being...