Writes to Madhya Pradesh CM about Maheshwar clearance  Proposes to stop construction work on the dam ‘Lack of progress on relief & rehabilitation front’ BHOPAL: Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has written to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan informing him of “grave violations” of the conditions for environmental clearance given for the Maheshwar dam project by the MoEF under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. As a...

For a man who will inherit vast tracts of fertile farmland in Punjab, India's grain bowl, Jaswinder Singh made what seemed to him a logical career move -- he took a job with a telecoms company in New Delhi. "I can't go back to the village after an M.B.A. Delhi has more money, better quality of life. The job is more satisfying, and you don't depend on the weather or...

AMIT KUMAR must be one of the few bankers in the world turning away depositors. The manager of a village bank in the Indian state of Rajasthan, he was reluctant to take a cheque for 1m rupees ($21,200) from the elected head of the village, or sarpanch. The cheque was meant to pay hundreds of villagers for their work under India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which guarantees 100...

In one section of the university building where I teach, there is an enormous and motley collection of discarded computer-related items, stacked and piled in an unwieldy mess. This has been lying around for a while now, nearly a year, not only because of the prolonged bureaucratic procedures involved in getting material "written off", but also because no one knows what to do with the stuff once it has actually...

India has blocked entry to a former US naval ship heading for break-up at a scrap yard on its west coast, citing environmental and pollution concerns. The ministry of environment and forests said it inspected Platinum-II and found the ship contained toxic material.   There are also concerns that the ship has been brought into India with false documentation, the ministry says. The ship reached Indian waters last month, but was...