-Frontline A report by ActionAid and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences highlights the vulnerability and tragic living conditions of thousands of children who take shelter in Mumbai's streets. IN 1988, the acclaimed film-maker Mira Nair made Salaam Bombay!, a poignantly revealing film on street children in Mumbai. The plot revolves around the protagonist, Krishna or "Chaipau", who is kicked out of his home by his mother for having damaged his...

-The Hindu The UPA government hopes to pass a slew of anti-graft laws, Congress sources said, next month along with the mandatory Vote-on-Account when the 15th Lok Sabha meets for the last time for a fortnight, ahead of general elections slated for April/ May. The Congress's confidence, party sources said, hinges on the fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party - shaken by the success of the Aam Aadmi Party that has...

-Outlook   New Delhi: Delhi government today announced that it would be opening 100 new night shelters across the city over the next few days with a view to providing relief to the homeless from the biting cold. Talking about the proposed move, Urban Development Minister Manish Sisodia said the SDMs who had been asked to map the homeless in the city had found 4,018 persons sleeping in the open at 212 locations. "At...

-Down to Earth Thousands of people working under NREGS bring a 38 km stream back from the dead in Uttar Pradesh Thirty nine-year-old Ram Ishwar gave up farming to pull a rickshaw outside the railway station in Uttar Pradesh's Fatehpur town. He says scarcity of water and a resultant increase in the cost of irrigation rendered farming unprofitable. Wheat production from his 0.4 hectare (ha) farmland shrank from one tonne to half...

-The Hindu On the day that Veerappa Moily took over reins, the Environment Ministry eased environmental clearance norms for select industries, including brick kiln owners and river sand miners. On December 24, the Ministry took a decision to exempt a slew of different types of industrial and mining projects from either providing environmental impact assessment reports or holding public hearings when they are approved by the state government. Categorising these set of...