-Down to Earth Rice cultivation has led to waterlogging and soil salinity in Haryana’s Jhajjar district CASTE-BASED khap panchayats of Haryana are usually in the news for passing regressive and, often, controversial orders in the name of honouring social customs. But this year in January, the Jhakkar khap panchayat of Jhajjar district gave a rather unusual order in the larger interest of the farming community. It ordered that all the 36...

-The Times of India A day after India Against Corruption (IAC) charged the government with selling out to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on the company's KG-D6 gas field off the Andhra coast, the oil ministry on Thursday hit back by describing the allegations as "baseless and frivolous".  In a point-wise rebuttal to IAC charges, a ministry statement — issued after former oil minister Mani Shankar Aiyar met incumbent Veerappa Moily for over...

-The Indian Express Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily on Thursday refuted Arvind Kejriwal’s accusations of the UPA government favouring Reliance Industries Ltd saying that the decisions were taken objectively “without fear or favour” and assured that his ministry would continue to uphold transparency. “The ministry is committed to upholding the rule of law and decisions are taken objectively without any fear or favour. The system is not influenced or guided by whims and...

-The Indian Express Pune: A modest yet consistent decline in the infant mortality rate, especially in six problematic states, is one of the key features of the latest data from the Sample Registration System. Nationwide, the IMR has dropped by three points from 47 infant deaths per 1,000 live births to 44, according to the October 2012 SRS bulletin. It has dropped to 48 from 51 in rural areas , and...

-The Hindustan Times Melghat is an incredibly beautiful place — especially, if you visit the forest-rich area after a robust monsoon (like I did). The weather was cool, the sky pale azure and the spectacular cliff-and-ravine landscape green. But this gem of a place, 750 kilometres northeast of Mumbai in Maharashtra’s Amravati district, has an ugly side story: hunger and malnutrition have been killing tribal children and women here for years....