-The Economic Times It was just a ride in a cycle rickshaw that moved an Assam based veterinary surgeon, Dr Pradip Kumar Sarmah and got him thinking into setting up the concept of 'Rickshaw Bank'. The concept today has changed the lives of more than 10000 rickshaw pullers in six states in India. Dr Pradip Kumar Sarmah (47), the innovator of this concept, explained that majority of the rickshaw pullers drive rented...

-The Times of India The Tatra trucks being supplied to the Indian Army are obsolete, running on fuel-guzzling old engines with mechanical transmissions that are years behind the rest of the world, Army sources said. The details are believed to be part of Army chief General V K Singh's inputs to the CBI. The severe shortcomings would be a key part of the CBI's inquiry into Gen Singh's allegation that he was...

-The Hindu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday reiterated her appeal for allocating the entire power to be generated from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) to the State. In her letter addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Chief Minister said: “I understand that nuclear fuel loading is going to take place in the next few days in the first unit of the plant of 1,000 MW [megawatt] capacity. It is expected...

-IANS India's ambitious national solar programme has catalysed rapid growth in the solar market driving solar energy prices low and demonstrating how government policy can stimulate clean energy markets, according to a new report. In only two years, competitive bidding under India's National Solar Mission drove prices for grid-connected solar energy to nearly the price of electricity from fossil fuels, said the report released here Wednesday by the Natural Resources Defence...

Difficult times call for difficult measures. Pushed into a corner by an unsustainable fiscal deficit and various sectors and programs (including the proposed food security legislation) screaming for a greater share of the budget pie, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in India has been forced to do what it might not have otherwise—reduce its marquee job guarantee scheme’s allocation in a big way for the first time.  In one...