-The Telegraph   Tribals will now be involved in value-addition and marketing of minor forest produce (MFP) such as honey and tamarind so they can get better prices. For the first time, a group of private companies has come forward to set up units that will carry out the value-addition and train tribal youths in the process as well as marketing the products. The firms will set up such units under the public-private-partnerships (PPP),...

-The Hindu   “Allowing oil firms to control market will hurt economy”   De-regulation by which the three public sector oil companies are empowered to set the price of petrol and other petroleum products has been challenged in a public interest litigation petition in the Supreme Court. The All India Youth Federation (AIYF), represented by its general secretary P. Sandoshkumar, said there was no rationale behind replacing the Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM) with the Import...

India recorded 98,621 rotavirus-inducted diarrhoea deaths in 2008, which is about 22% of global toll from the infection.  Nigeria - the second worst-hit country - recorded about 41,000 deaths, or less than 50% of fatalities as compared to India.  Pakistan (39,000) and Bangladesh (9,000) figures among the top 10 worst-affected nations grappling with rotavirus infection, says a study that appeared in medical journal, "The Lancet Infectious Diseases". It shows 453,000 deaths occurred...

-The Indian Express   The Supreme Court has said that it amounts to “fraud” on the part of the government to forcibly acquire land under the guise of a public purpose, only to have the property transferred to real estate developers or companies for their use.   A Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhyaya held that the State cannot use its power to compulsorily purchase or acquire land of a...

-The Indian Express   Taking a tough stand on rampant plagiarism in the preparation of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) reports, the Environment Ministry has decided to scrap any project whose impact-assessment report is found to be a “copy-paste” job from other reports. EIA reports are a must to get mandatory ‘green clearances’ for projects. Project developers, which are mostly Private Firms, hire independent environmental consultants for the job. The decision to scrap such...