-BBC   An Indian activist who went on a hunger strike in February to protest against illegal mining has died in a hospital in northern Uttarakhand state. Swami Nigamanand, 36, slipped into a coma in May, days after being hospitalised. Officials said the government had banned mining in the Kumbh region as demanded by the activist. But federal Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has blamed the state government for "ignoring" the activist's pleas. A founder-member of...

The ends may justify the means, but let's be clear - in rural India, extremes of coercion are being used to encourage toilet use Robert Chambers recently wrote that community-led total sanitation is leading to a development revolution, especially in south Asia. I agree with his assessment of sanitation's importance. In practice, however, the success of community-led efforts often hinges on the use of outright coercion. In my experience, the measures...

In his lifetime, Nigamanand, an ascetic fighting a lonely battle against quarrying activities in Uttarakhand, tried to draw the attention of the national Media to an environmental disaster waiting to happen in the state. In his death, the 36-year-old Sadhu, who went into a coma and died on Wednesday following his four-month-long fast in the same hospital at Dehra Dun where Ramdev was admitted, has forced civil society, politicians and the...

-DNA   A Media rights group has drawn a parallel between murders of Pakistani scribe Saleem Shahzad and senior Mumbai journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, saying both were targeted for their zeal to expose powerful elements. The South Asia Media Commission India asked the Maharashtra government to throw the entire might of the state administration behind the probe into the killing of Dey. The editor (special investigation) of English eveninger Mid-Day, who has extensively reported...

-The Telegraph   The Raj Bhavan secretariat had expressed “procedural doubts” about the now-discarded Singur ordinance on Thursday and the governor had signed it only after an assurance from minister Partha Chatterjee that the law department had not come across any potential red flags, Writers’ Buildings sources said today. The government had to drop the ordinance yesterday because it is unconstitutional to promulgate one while the Assembly is in session. It decided...