Curative plea filed in Supreme Court on anniversary of tragedy Coinciding with the anniversary of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, the Centre on Friday filed a curative petition seeking enhancement of the compensation of $ 470 million determined by the Supreme Court in 1989 on the ground that this settlement was arrived at on the basis of assumptions of truth unrelated to realities. The Centre as parens patriae (parent of the...

Food Ministry asked how it proposed to reform PDS to plug leakages “Present procurement of foodgrains is between 50 and 55 million tonnes” In the first meeting on Friday of the experts group set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to examine the recommendations of the National Advisory Council (NAC) on the proposed National Food Security Bill, senior officials were asked to come up with firm calculations. Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic...

A widening corruption scandal that has touched India’s prime minister sent the country’s stock markets down sharply on Friday and threatened to tarnish the country’s image as a rising economic power. Setting off the turmoil was a report from the country’s auditor earlier this week that about $40 billion in wireless spectrum license fees had been squandered by the government’s telecommunications and information technology minister. On Thursday, India’s Supreme Court criticized...

The indiscriminate use of fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides over the years has led to deterioration of soil quality and crop productivity in India. According to a study conducted by the central soil water conservation research and training institute (CSWCRTI), Dehra Dun, about 1 millimetre of top soil is lost every year due to erosion. This leads to a total soil loss of 5,334 million tonnes annually, at an average rate...

The country’s economic growth is expected to remain strong despite sluggishness in the manufacturing sector as a rebound in agricultural output is expected to support overall growth. Growth in the key farm sector, which accounts for nearly 17% of the nation’s GDP, has been a concern for policymakers for the past few quarters. But, healthy monsoon has raised expectations of strong farm output during July-September 2010. In addition, the arrival of...