The Supreme Court order against the Salwa Judum’s vigilantism in Chhattisgarh must be read by all, especially government officials. The details of the civil war in the tribal districts of Chhattisgarh are largely unknown to most readers of this newspaper. For the region is remote and inaccessible, and easily ignored by the national media.   This civil war pits, on the one side, Maoist extremists, and, on the other, a band of...

-The Times of India   The Supreme Court may have cleared the Lafarge mining case, but it has also ordered the setting up of an independent clearance authority. The move is a boost to Union minister Jairam Ramesh's plans to legislate an autonomous National environment Appraisal and Monitoring Authority. Taking the cue from the suggestions made by the environment ministry to strengthen the clearance process, the apex court backed the creation of...

  The first attempt by the state government to convince the agitating farmers to withdraw their movement against the proposed Posco steel plant at Halligudi met with failure, after talks between District In-charge Minister C C Patil and Siddhalinga swamiji of Tontadarya mutt fell through. The seer told Patil that there was no question of withdrawing the agitation, despite a fervent appeal from the latter, who assured that the state government would...

-PTI   India has contributed to a large reduction in global poverty, according to the UN annual report on the Millennium Development Goals , which also pointed out that despite progress, the most vulnerable sections of society were being left out. The report, which was released on Thursday , said that poverty continues to decline in many countries and regions. It said that the fastest and sharpest reductions in poverty were in Eastern...

-The Economic Times   A group of ministers formed to approve the draft mining Bill, has agreed to earmark 100% of the royalty paid by major mineral mining companies , to compensate people displaced by such projects. The panel, chaired by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee , which met on Thursday , also agreed to earmark 26% of the profit made by coal mining companies, in favour of people directly affected ,...