Every answer to question on Nitish Kumar's performance in the last five years as Bihar's chief minister begins with the phrase, ''Kam se kam itna toh kiya hai... (at the very least, he has done this...).''   By any index of growth and development, Nitish's five-year reign has unleashed no miracles. With 54.4% of its population under the Tendulkar Committee's revised poverty line, Bihar is India's poorest state and its health indicators...

Union minister of environment and forest Jairam Ramesh  has asked Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan to review the 49 mining leases given for excavation of iron ore and bauxite in Sindhudurg region. The move follows a TOI expose on the state government`s decision to approve the leases in the eco-sensitive district of Konkan Maharashtra. Ramesh`s letter to the chief minister, which attached a series of news reports that appeared in TOI...

Forest Minister Benoy Viswom on Monday expressed apprehension that the National Green Tribunal Act, enacted by the Centre, would lead to dilution of the Forest (Conservation) Act. In a letter to Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh, Mr. Viswom called upon the Union Minister to convene a conference of State Ministers of forests and environment to discuss issues related to the Act. Concerns Mr. Viswom said while he appreciated...

The Commonwealth Games were no showcase, but a mirror of India 2010. If they presented anything, it was this — Indian crony, casino capitalism at its most vigorous. The Commonwealth Games over, we can now return to those of everyday Indian life. For all the protests, though, there was nothing in the corruption that marked the Games that does not permeate every town and city, all the time. Just that, in...

The Kisan Swaraj Yatra, a countrywide rally of farmers questioning the corporatisation of rural farms, reached the city on Sunday morningfrom Ralegaon Siddhi after covering 20 states over 71 days. The rally has demanded an explanation on the socio-cultural, environmental and political ramifications of such rampant corporatisation. It has modelled itself after Gandhi’s Dandi March. The march, that began on October 2 at Sabarmati, will end at Rajghat on December 11....