-Kafila.org Almost a century ago, Katherine Mayo published a book titled ‘Mother India’ that criticized the Indian way of living, and Rudyard Kipling  spoke of the ‘White Man’s Burden’. These writings reflected the colonial perspective that what colonizers did was in the best interest of the colonized people. Consequently, most well-meaning citizens of colonial powers were alienated from the horrible plight of the colonized. Purpose well served – unopposed exploitation. Years later,...

-The Telegraph Shillong: Two teams of National Disaster Response Force personnel were rushed to Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills district today to help rescue possible survivors among the 15 labourers trapped inside a coal mine since last week. The Guwahati-based personnel reached Nengkol in the Rongsa Awe area of Nangalbibra region — from where it is 10km to the coal mines — late this evening. Baghmara, the district headquarters, is around 480km from...

-CNN-IBN The Central Government on Thursday accepted before the Supreme Court the auction route for allocating 2G spectrum. Attorney General G E Vahanvati told the Supreme Court that the Centre favoured auction for future sale of spectrum.   But the government is yet to decide on whether it favours auction for sale of all scarce natural resources to commercial parties. The apex court had on Wednesday said that it cannot reject the presidential reference...

-PTI Goa cannot have unlimited mining given its ecological sensitivity, the Mashelkar Committee said, demanding that the cap should be such that it will protect the environment and social well being of the state Panaji: A committee of experts constituted by the Goa government has recommended a cap on extraction of iron ore in the coastal state to 20-25 million metric tonnes (MMT), which is almost half the existing exports, reports PTI.   The...

-The Telegraph Union food minister K.V. Thomas today claimed the Bengal government had distributed only a small fraction of foodgrain specially allotted last year for 10 backward districts, drawing a sharp rebuttal from the state, as another confrontation with the Centre unfolded over figures. Thomas’s comment came days after Union home minister P. Chidambaram had voiced concern over Bengal’s “culture of violence” and cited casualty figures that were contested by the Mamata...