The $12 billion mega steel plant project of South Korean behemoth Posco proposed to be set up near Paradip port hangs in balance between promise and protest. While chief minister Naveen Patnaik assured the South Korean president, Lee Myung-Bak, to expedite the much-delayed project, anti-plant protesters have launched an indefinite dharna opposing the project. “I assured the South Korean President that the Posco steel plant project will be expedited. Of course, our...

With 15 of Orissa's 30 districts hit by drought amid allegations of more than 400 starvation deaths in nine years, a Supreme Court panel has asked the Administration to rescue hungry people immediately to prevent possible deaths. The SC appointed Commissioner and Special Commissioner have recommended a "protocol" for preventing hunger deaths in the state. "Protocol for preventing starvation would ensure that the state response is appropriate to mitigate some...

That the hole in the Earth’s ozone layer is slowly mending is considered a big victory for environmental policymakers. But in a new report, scientists say there is a downside: Its repair may contribute to global warming. It turns out that the hole led to the formation of moist, brighter-than-usual clouds that shielded the Antarctic region from the warming induced by greenhouse gas emissions over the last two decades, scientists...

Activists realise it takes a fight to translate democracy from thin paper to thick action In the winter of 1997, advocate Ashok Agarwal filed a petition in the Supreme Court opposing the nearly 400 per cent hike in school fees. This was the year the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations were implemented and the salaries of teachers shot up. Parents trying to cope with the overall price rise were suddenly hit by...

Jharkhand has pulled off a remarkable turnaround in funds utilisation for the Centre’s flagship rural employment scheme, spending around Rs 500 crore in just over four months after September 2009 when it was pulled up by the MGNREGS director in New Delhi for poor implementation. Of Rs 1,600 crore allocated so far to the state under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme for the current fiscal (April 2009 to...