-The Hindu Madurai: Solar energy is conquering more territories with increasing industrial application. In Theni district, it has become popular among dhal mills. Besides conserving considerable fossil fuel, solar heating used in the processing of dhal also helps to keep the environment around the Western Ghats clean. Solar heat processor developed by Planters' Energy Network (PEN) is now used in big dhal processing units in Theni. The process starts with harvesting of...

-The Indian Express How many jobs must be created to realise our demographic dividend (or avoid a nightmare)? Half of India's population is below 25. The worst-case scenario is that enough jobs are not created for the millions entering the labour force each year, and that this Semi-educated mass becomes a force driving social conflict. The reason that East Asian countries (especially China) rode the wave of the demographic dividend and dramatically...

-The Hindu Only un-electrified households will be entitled to subsidised fuel New Delhi: Attacking the subsidy regime, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has scrapped the supply of subsidised kerosene through the Public Distribution System (PDS). The Centre plans to write to States asking them to provide subsidised kerosene only to un-electrified households. States which have achieved near 100 per cent electrification will be incentivised to become kerosene-free, a Finance Ministry source told...

-The Financial Express The government has identified 46 million hectare of agricultural land spread across 122 districts that is likely to be adversely impacted by extreme weather events and cause decline in farm output, agriculture minster Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday said. "Uncertain and erratic rainfall, delay in onset of monsoon, agricultural droughts, excess rainfall events and other extreme weather events during crop growing seasons may affect agricultural productivity and profitability of...

-The Indian Express On the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, memories of the victims' suffering surface once again. One is at a loss for words to describe what happened on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984. Was it an accident? Or was it industrial genocide? We will never know what it was, since no investigation was conducted on what caused water to leak into 41 tonnes of higly toxic...