The small big polluter

Small-scale industries: Where regulations are meaningless and pollution control an unaffordable luxury. Can they leapfrog to cost-effective …

News Briefs

Last ditch attempt

UPA gives sops under MGNREGS to attract rural voters ahead of elections

Funds for social welfare cut drastically in revised budget estimates

Ministers write protest letters to prime minister and finance minister, saying it would greatly impact ongoing schemes

Have technology, will survive

A green agenda based on the paradigm of pollution prevention can rescue the small-scale industry

Mere plans

Government proposes. Industry disposes. Programmes for cleaning up have very largely gone by the wayside

Nothing to bank on

The government’s much-hyped Direct Benefit Transfer programme has hit a roadblock. Banks have failed to meet the huge demand for opening …

Six sins that make drought invincible

Nationwide strike cripples France

SC declines mining clearance to Vedanta

Port workers in Gujarat protest move to privatise four ports

Rice at risk

Growing paddy is not viable for small farmers of Kerala. Will the state be able to preserve the crop which delivers a number of ecological …

Supreme Court order triggers NREGS wage debate

How much should workers under rural employment scheme be paid if minimum wage fixed by a state is more than that of the Centre?

Green energy takes toll on green cover

A forest generated by residents in Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district is being destroyed to set up windmills

The small big polluter

Resource crunch and poor regulatory processes have made small-scale industries the pariahs of India's environment

Sponge iron industries are killing fields

The sponge iron industry is growing fast and polluting alarmingly. K Radhika in Chhattisgarh and Maureen Nandini Mitra in Jharkhand and Orissa …

Cash transfers do not benefit

Jitendra visited three districts in Rajasthan to meet people who are supposed beneficiaries of UPA government’s much-touted Direct Benefit …

Will India officially be poverty free in 2023?

National Statistical Office rolling out consumption expenditure sample survey; may note impact of central schemes adding to people’s income

Experts' panel red flags power, mining projects in Western Ghats

Urges MoEF to reject Gundia hydro-electric project and Athirapally dam

Budget through the years post liberalisation

Run up to Budget 2012-13

PMO orders huge cuts in social sector spending for 2015-16

Employment guarantee, rural road and sanitation schemes among those likely to be affected

MPs funds to now be used to develop over 2,000 ‘model’ villages

Ministry of rural development will channelise MPs’ funds through different schemes for Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

Mission possible

The Centre gives India just about eight years to free its villages of open defecation. This seems unlikely. But the states of Sikkim, Haryana and …

Half-way to autonomy

Decisions by Maharashtra’s top forest official can empower gram sabhas prepare plans to revive their forests, but a policy is awaited