It would be grave folly to recoil from the N-option, our safest Nuclear Is Clear     The world needs cheap energy and, as of now, nuclear plants are the most efficient means to that end     Switching to fossil fuel sources will add to global warming. In extremis, the oceans could boil away.     The lesson from Fukushima is no worse than that tsunamis are a danger to everything in their path *** After the...

-The Telegraph   A farmer in his mid-thirties killed himself in a Burdwan village early this morning, a mountain of debt driving him under after he was apparently forced to sell paddy to middlemen at a lower price. Tapas Majhi’s suicide comes at a time three Bengal agencies tasked with procuring paddy directly from farmers and mill owners have been able to meet just 10 per cent of their target because of lack...

Pointing out that nearly one out of seven Americans face food insecurity, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz said here on Thursday that by recognising the right to food as a basic human right, India is leading the way for the Rest of the world. “India has recognised the right to food as a basic human right, leading the way for the Rest of the world, and is on the verge of a...

A non-government assessment has ranked India third from the bottom among the world’s nine nuclear armed states in its ability to secure nuclear materials from theft, with only Pakistan and North Korea with lower scores. The nuclear materials security index, released by the US-based non-profit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NIT) yesterday, is described as “the first, public baseline assessment of the status of nuclear materials security conditions” worldwide. A panel of nuclear and...

To banish hunger and malnutrition from the country, Parliament is likely to pass the National Food Security Bill (NFSB). In our earlier article on this issue, Can we Afford Rs 6-Lakh-Cr Food Subsidy Bill in 3 Yrs? (ET, December 17, 2011), we concentrated on the likely financial implication that we estimated at roughly Rs 6,00,000 crore over a period of three years. In this piece, we address the operational challenges...