There has been uproar in southern India's Andhra Pradesh assembly in protest against the government's decision to create a new state. Lawmakers have shouted slogans against the decision to carve out a new state of Telangana in its north. An estimated 35 million people will live in the new state, Telangana. Separately, a four-day strike called by a regional political party demanding a separate state has begun in India's tea-producing Darjeeling...

The decision to set up a nuclear power station with U.S.-made reactors at Kovvada in Ranasthalam mandal of Srikakulam district has caused serious concern among environmental and social activists. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is confident of completing the land acquisition process for Kovvada and four other coastal-based plants within one and half years. It wants clearances for the plants as fast-track projects. Sources have told The Hindu that...

As protests against the plan to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh continued during the third day of the bandh in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, agitators in Nellore closed the gates of the Kandaleru reservoir of the Telugu Ganga project for the second consecutive day and stopped release of water to Chennai for some time before irrigation officials intervened and re-opened them. In Vijayawada, Telugu Desam Party leaders, including two MLAs, launched...

A team from the World Bank will be in New Delhi soon to work out the nitty-gritties of a $1-billion loan to the urban development ministry for carrying forward the cash-starved flagship scheme for upgrading urban infrastructure, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). There would, however, be conditionalities attached to the use of the fund as it would be reform-linked and only select states would get access to...

The termination of the proposed social audits of works carried out under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in 16 panchayats -- one each from an equal number of districts -- in Rajasthan this past week has come as a rude shock to the social activists who pioneered the job scheme. Coming as it does from the Congress Government in the NREGS flagship State of Rajasthan, the development has...