Chidambaram to explain Centre's plan to deal with Maoist activities in a holistic manner Meet to iron out problems in coordination among States To discuss plan to redeploy paramilitary forces Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will preside over a meeting of Chief Ministers of Naxal-affected States here on Wednesday. Chief Ministers of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar will attend the day-long meeting, which will discuss a fresh strategy to fight the...

India is incredible (after shining), with the fastest growth rate, an emerging demographic dividend and innovative brains for the globe. But the vast majority in rural India — employed in agriculture, small-scale and tiny industries, self-employed, and with no assets — does not find it so. This government, claiming inclusive growth for the grossly deprived and poor, has not taken actions to bring down prices of essential food items, unprecedented...

AS CONCERN for the ecosystem runs high all across the world, a small, mountainous state in India’s northeast — Sikkim, has taken a step ahead and declared to go completely organic by the year 2015. What this means is the total phasing out of chemical inputs from agriculture. Sikkim has long been an ecologically conscious state with initiatives such as a comprehensive ban on plastic, bio-medical and chemical waste in...

Following a hike in the prices of petrol, diesel, gas, milk prices have also gone up. Between January 2007 and March 2010 the price of milk rose seven times in Delhi. The story is similar elsewhere in the nation too. In the last one year, prices increased from Rs 17 to Rs 22 a litre. In some cities, like Mumbai, the rise has been steeper. Earlier, it was pulses that were burning...

The Centre wants all `kutcha' houses to be replaced by durable, disaster-resistant structures by 2016-17. It forms the big expression of intent in the first-of-its-kind `rural housing and habitat policy' that UPA may announce soon. The government wants to engage NGOs in rural housing, a sector the voluntary organisations have shunned till now. The government feels the rural populace will benefit from NGOs in the field of "technology dissemination" and...