Yet-to-be-made public report dismisses environmental concerns The high-level committee set up by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to study the socio-economic and ecological impacts of the proposed bauxite mining in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam district has submitted its final report  favouring mining. The committee concludes mining will not have any significant negative impact on the ecology. At the same time it recommends settling all claims under the Forest Rights...

-The Hindustan Times A magistrate court in Bina, Madhya Pradesh, directed the information and broadcasting ministry to stop telecast of the godman Nirmal Baba’s programme ‘Nirmal Darbar’ till further orders. The court also issued an arrest warrant against Nirmal Baba on Saturday. If legal action is not taken against such persons, common people would be asking us &NDAsh; does law exist only for weak or the poor? It is duty of...

-The Pioneer In what could puncture the Government’s defence that there were no irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks when the Coal Ministry was under the charge of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has specifically asked the CBI to look into the role of Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Screening Committee of the Coal Ministry. The CVC has also asked the agency to probe why auction...

-The United Nations Almost 21 million people worldwide are trapped in jobs into which they were coerced or deceived and which they cannot leave, according to new estimates released today by the United Nations labour agency. Released by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the 2012 Global Estimate of Forced Labour found that the Asia-Pacific region accounts for the largest number of the 20.9 million forced labourers in the world &NDAsh; 11.7 million,...

A government report lends credence to the notion of “two Indias”, or the distinction between “India” and “Bharat” &NDAsh; a theme often debated in recent years. At a time when urban India is growing and policy makers have expressed clear preference for the trend, this report, by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), brings India’s deep urban-rural divide into focus, showing disparities in scale and levels of expenditure and consumption and, equally...