Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh today questioned the policy of providing free electricity to farmers in certain states, saying excessive pumping by cultivators had led to a depletion in groundwater levels. “In district after district, groundwater tables are falling. And there is no doubt that free electricity has caused excessive use of water. Our policies on pricing of water also do not lead to conservation. So we have to rethink on...

The foreign suppliers of nuclear material to Indian nuclear Power plants would not be held liable for accidents caused by defective or faulty equipment supplied by them if the accident takes place after a guarantee period specified by them.   According to the Rules of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act, which was made public today, suppliers of nuclear material would be allowed to specify a ‘product liability period’ beyond which...

The contrast could not have been starker. On one side is an English teacher leading fishermen and villagers, using his unbridled oratory to spew propaganda against Kudankulam’s ready-to-start nuclear plant that will produce 1,000MW. Arraigned against him is a group of engineers who have devoted their lives to building nuclear Power plants. Affable, soft-spoken and hurt that the world’s “safest” nuclear plant that they have built has not been allowed to...

-The Hindu   Coordinator of the Anti Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project movement, S.P. Udhayakumar, has decided to file defamation case against Union Minister of State for Prime Minister's Office, V. Narayanasamy, for alleging that the protesters were getting money from foreign countries to stop commissioning of the plant. Speaking to reporters here on Saturday, he said that the Congress was supporting the commissioning of the plant. “They are terming us anti-nationals only for...

'Economic growth will need massive energy. Will we allow an accident in Japan, in a 40-year-old reactor at Fukushima, arising out of extreme natural stresses, to derail our dreams to be an economically developed nation?' Every single atom in the universe carries an unimaginably powerful battery within its heart, called the nucleus. This form of energy, often called Type-1 fuel, is hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of times more powerful...