A forest panel examining any potential violation of forest laws for a proposed steel mill by South Korea's POSCO in Orissa has recommended temporary withdrawal of existing permits, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Monday. The long-delayed plant in India's eastern state of Orissa has been stalled by protests and environmental reports spearheaded by Jairam Ramesh, who has scrapped many big-ticket projects including some by London-listed miner Vedanta Resources Plc. POSCO is...

If India is becoming a favourite destination for clinical trials, Maharashtra is the hub with Mumbai and Pune accounting for the largest number of clinical trials in the country. Maharashtra alone accounted for well over a quarter of all the clinical trials registered with the clinical trials registry of India till 2010. A study of the trials recorded in the registry, done by the Centre for Studies in Ethics and...

A young farmer from Nashik committed suicide after failing to bear the burden of damage to crops due to unseasonal rains. Dyneshwar Bhikaji Adake, 32, a resident of Nanegaon, hung himself in the early hours of Monday. Villagers said Adake had developed four acres of land as a vineyard, which was damaged due to unseasonal rains last fortnight. With mounting debts, he hung himself from a grill after midnight. Police have...

Indian federal investigators have announced an inquiry into 21 companies in connection with a banking loans scandal. Eight bankers have already been arrested this week, including senior executives of top state banks, accused of taking bribes to sign off loans. The Bombay Stock Exchange fell by 1% as a result of the inquiry, analysts said. The investigation is the latest in a series of corruption scandals to hit the country. Those arrested on Wednesday...

For past several weeks, thousands of farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand have been left in the lurch. They had planted urd and til crops in a large acreage, and to their dismay no grain formation took place in the standing crop. Unable to bear the economic loss, at least four farmers have reportedly committed suicide. Thousands of farmers have been pushed deeper into economic distress....