The Supreme Court on May 7 ruled that natural resources were national assets that belonged to the people and were ideally exploited by public sector undertakings. This obviously implies that local communities, including tribals, living on mineralised land, enjoy entitlements but not prescriptive ownership rights to such national assets. This is an important reiterative clarification defining mineral rights in Fifth Schedule areas that are currently in contention. Whether PSUs should...

THE government on Thursday raised the minimum support price of paddy by Rs 50 per quintal to Rs 1000 per quintal in what may push up its food subsidy bill, pegged at Rs 5 5,578.18 crore in the current fiscal. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also increased the minimum support price of pulses by up to Rs 700 to touch Rs 3,170 a...

CBI feels constrained by need to get consent of States to probe offences in their jurisdictions Draft envisages panel for appointment of CBI Director as laid down by Supreme Court Often under attack from the Opposition parties who accuse the government of the day of misusing it, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has urged the government to replace the outdated pre-independence era Delhi Special Police Establishment Act that governs its functioning...

Why is Madhya Pradesh ranked so low in the Millennium Development Goals like child and maternal mortality, extreme poverty, hunger and safe drinking water? Social sector allocation has increased only during the last few years. Before 2005, there wasn’t enough money allocated to it when compared to poverty alleviation schemes. Also, it takes time for the benefits of the allocations to reach people and for real change to manifest itself....

The PMO documents gathered using Right To Information Act (RTI) show a manifest collusion between ministers, officials and Dow Chemicals to protect it from the liabilities of Industrial catastrophe of Bhopal. The documents reveal how some of the ministers who have been made part of  the Group of Ministers (GoM) by the Prime Minister have been acting to safeguard the interest of the US corporation in question, which is liable...