Honey hubs to be created for SC/STs at Kodaikanal, Vadipatti and Kadayam Priority for small projects in the range of Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 3 lakh Emphasis on production of fly-ash bricks and palm products The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) plans to focus on creating employment opportunities for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/STs) in rural areas of southern districts. The Central Government body plans to start new khadi institutions near their habitations...

Approvals pertain to bauxite mining, alumina factory, wetlands allocation for three thermal projects Union Minister of State for environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has announced a probe into all kinds of permission given so far for bauxite mining, setting up of alumina factory and allocation of wetlands in Srikakulam for setting up three thermal power projects. He promised to withdraw all permissions if the report proved that they were given in contravention...

The UN has said what the Congress had been bragging all the time. The international agency has hailed India’s rural job guarantee scheme, one of the flagship programmes of the UPA government, saying that it has reduced poverty and reversed inequality. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) in a report titled “What Will it Take to Achieve Millennium Development Goals? An International Assessment,” says the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has...

This National Advisory Council might not be as powerful as its namesake and as freewheeling in its mandate, but it will oversee the implementation of the Right to Education, the single most important intervention in the field of education since independence. HRD minister Kapil Sibal, who will be the ex-officio chairperson of this 14-member NAC, has cleared the names of eight members. They are Kiran Karnik, former president of NASSCOM;...

The Union environment Ministry has formed a fresh panel to look into the alleged violation of forest rights of tribals in Niyamgiri hills, where it has held up clearance to the bauxite mining project of Vedanta Resources. The Ministry, in a notification on Tuesday, announced a four-member panel to be headed by NC Saxena from National Advisory Council (NAC). S Parasuraman from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Promode Kant and Amita...