-IANS Those who cherish India's constitutional values will find Gujarat Chief Minister Narenda Modi's boast to build a state of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (India's first home minister and deputy prime minister) taller than the Statue of Liberty rather chilling. By prizing nationalism over individual freedom, Modi may have once again revealed his illiberal nature. People who dislike this aspect of him, Leftists mainly, give vent to their disapproval by dismissing Modi's development...

-The Hindu     There is little demonstrated evidence of health benefits from access to ‘improved' stoves and clean fuels Around three billion of the world's poorest people have to burn firewood, animal dung, crop waste and coal to cook food and heat homes, using traditional stoves and open fires. The health-damaging smoke that results is estimated to cause some four million premature deaths each year, principally of women and children. Although many governments, multinational...

-PTI NEW DELHI: India's economic development has led to the worsening of Air Quality in major Indian cities, according to the results of a survey by The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. The transport sector was ranked the highest followed by factories in and around the city as the second highest contributor towards air pollution in Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai. While respondents from Bangalore...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: An environment survey carried out across six metropolitan cities by The Energy and Resources Institute has found that while 80% of the respondents in Delhi believe that the overall environment in the city has deteriorated in the past five years, the capital also sets the record for being the most ill-informed across the metros about government policies on environment. Teri interviewed 1,114 respondents in Delhi NCR...

-Economic and Political Weekly   A report on the 2013 deliberation of the Kolkata Group at its 10th workshop which focused on healthcare, the status of women and social justice in India. A K Shiva Kumar (akshivakumar@gmail.com) is convener of the Kolkata Group workshops which are organised by Pratichi (India) Trust, the Harvard Global Equity Initiative and UNICEF India. At the 10th annual Kolkata Group workshop in February this year, 40 policymakers, development practitioners,...