The 10,000 MW nuclear power plant that the NPCIL proposes to set up at Jaitapur, Maharashtra, with reactors from French company Areva, was on the agenda of the Union Environment Ministry's Expert Appraisal Committee meeting on Monday. According to some members, the committee plans to recommend a conditional environmental clearance for the plant. However, it is not clear what the final decision of the committee will be. It is then up...

Labour Bureau has been conducting quick quarterly employment surveys in the selected sectors of the economy at the enterprise level to assess the impact of economic slowdown on employment in India. With a view to study the overall employment-unemployment situation in the country, Labour Bureau has now conducted its first national level household survey in 28 States/UT Except five North Eastern States and the Islands of Lakshadweep and the Andaman...

The unemployment rate in the labour force was estimated to be 9.4 per cent during the 2009-10 financial year, a government survey has said. The Indian jobless rate was till now arrived at strictly by guesswork. According to the first national level household survey conducted by the Labour Bureau, out of 1,000 employed persons, 455 were employed in agriculture, forestry and Fisheries group during this period. The survey was conducted with a view...

Few will take very seriously the undertaking given by the government in the Supreme Court that River Ganga will be pure and free of pollution by 2020. Similar commitments were made to the public 25 years ago when, in 1985, the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) to clean this most treasured of the sub-continent’s rivers was launched. Even after spending several thousand crores of rupees on the project, the Ganga is...

For generations, a majority of Vidarbha’s debt-ridden farmers have only grown cotton, making themselves vulnerable to unreliable market conditions. Now, these and other districts facing an agrarian crisis, as well as the rest of the state’s agriculture community may have some reason to smile. Rs 643 crore will be pumped into the state for the farmers, with the government going ahead with its ambitious Maharashtra Competitive Agriculture Project (MACP). On Tuesday, the...