After Haryana ban, illegal mining shifts to Sikar’s hills Who’s The Quarry? More than 400 active leases in the Sikar belt 1,200 trucks move out of Rajasthan Aravallis daily In Dabla alone, 50 ha of land mined Area has five small rivers, three clogged with sludge. *** The ceiling of her house has some long cracks, the roof has become unstable, the floor in some parts has caved in. When Reshmi built her house in the Dabla...

Taking strong exception to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks against NGOs who opposed genetically modified crops and nuclear power plants, a group of eminent citizens said that it was a “highly inappropriate misrepresentation of facts.” In a strongly-worded letter to him, the group led by the former Supreme Court Judge, V.R. Krishna Iyer, and including the former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, A. Gopalakrishnan, said it was the government...

-The Indian Express Section 377 violates the right to equality, whatever be the gay or HIV numbers Examining the appeal on Section 377 (which had been struck down by the Delhi high court, effectively decriminalising homosexuality), the Supreme Court had been careful to unpack many of the terms that obscure the issue, like “unnatural” and “abnormal”. The government, after confusedly spinning around on its stand, finally went with the health ministry’s earlier...

India’s decision-makers seem to find it difficult to see that there are children in the country. Being unable to see them, they are unable to perceive that they are hungry. In an age when we are able to use euphemisms like ‘under-nutrition’, this is perhaps not surprising. But it is disgraceful none the less.   This country has a large population of children. Fortyone per cent of its total numbers. The national...

The Union Home Ministry on Friday disowned Additional Solicitor-General P.P. Malhotra's averments in the Supreme Court in the homosexuality case and said the government's stand was not what he argued on February 23. He said homosexuality between two consenting adults was immoral and an offence. Soon after Mr. Malhotra made his submissions before a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya that day, another ASG Mohan Jain told the court...