-Business Standard The Supreme Court asked the Union environment ministry to review six specific hydroelectric projects on the upper Ganga basin in Uttarakhand. On Wednesday, the ministry informed the apex court that its expert committee had checked and found the six had almost all the requisite and legitimate clearances. But, the ministry did not tell the court the experts, in the report to the ministry, had also warned these dams could...

-The Hindu Public health experts agree that the response to the pandemic depends on constant surveillance and monitoring the evolution of the viral strain A viral storm is raging across the country. More than 200 deaths due to Influenza A (H1N1), known as swine flu, have been recorded within a short period of over a month. Telangana, has the dubious distinction of recording over 50 deaths and more than 600 H1N1-positive cases...

-The Indian Express Chandigarh: A panel of experts appointed by the Himachal Pradesh government has said that popular opposition to large hydel power projects on the Sutlej is being fanned by the establishment's "indifference" to the problems of the people. The panel has rejected the conclusions of a report prepared earlier for the union government, which had said that the adverse impact of the projects can be mitigated by suitable measures. "...Opposition to...

-Business Standard While the revised estimates of the gross domestic product (GDP) suggest the Indian economy turned the corner in 2013-14, concerns remain over the durability of this nascent recovery. Particularly worrying is the recent slowdown in rural wage growth, which signals a weakening of rural demand. Growth in rural wages, which had averaged 18 per cent in the previous few years, fell to less than five per cent in September...

The Hindu In the urgency to grant industry its due with promises of ‘Make in India,' the marginalised cannot continue to be victims of grave policy neglect and continuing alienation For some years now, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)has been perceived as a roadblock to development or a facilitator for the industry depending on which side you are on. Former Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan's recent letter to Sonia Gandhi...