On a dry winter morning in December 2012, while crossing the bridge over what seemed like narrow waterway in an eastern UP town, I noticed a mountain of garbage in the stream. This shrunken, polluted and narrow stream was river Varuna. I, a cub re
I met Amanullah Khan, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder, at a Rawalpindi hotel in 2000 on the occasion of his daughter Asma Khan’s wedding to Sajjad Lone, then a businessman and now a politician in Kashmir. He came across
There is no dearth of government policies and programmes to ensuring food for all; questions can be raised only about their effective implementation, says National Human Rights Commission chairperson justice HL Dattu. Inaugurating a
In an attempt to curb the trend of rising sugar prices, the Centre has decided to allow states to impose and enforce stock holding limits on dealers of sugar. The move has been brought about after it was noticed that in spite of sufficient availab
India’s commitment to the UN for creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonne of CO2 by 2030 through increased tree cover and forest growth is a tall goal, said Dr Ajay Mathur, director general at The Energy and Resources Ins
If the long queues at the employment exchanges and the crowds at private job fairs are an indicator, then trouble lies ahead for the Indian economy. The time has come to make employment generation the pivot for national development strategies.
Amidst uproar in parliament over corruption in the AgustaWestland chopper deal and BJP MP Subramanian Swamy’s attack on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, another twist in the tale has emerged. In 2014 when prominent RTI activist Subhash Chandra A
Western Coalfields (WCL), a CIL subsidiary, was making profits till 2009-10. But it had to scale down its production due to extra safety precautions following a labourer’s death in a mine mishap in September 2010. It resulted in five years o
A few kilometres from the Dhanbad railway station lies Jharia Coal Field (JCF), one of the biggest coalfields in India. It is also the biggest mine under Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL), in Jharkhand. As
The ministry of power has highlighted the features of UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All) scheme that aims to provide efficient lighting across the country. Here is a quick fact sheet of the scheme: •&
Senior IAS office Ashok Lavasa, secretary, environment ministry has been appointed as the new secretary, department of expenditure, ministry of finance. He will be replacing special secretary Ajay Narayan Jha, who has been shifted to environment m
The Indian Ordnance Factories – a family of 41 ordnance factories – listed its achievements for the financial year 2015-16. With over 200 years’ experience in defence production, the industry functions under the department of def
Nitin Gadkari, minister of road transport , highways and shipping on Wednesday announced that one percent of allocations made for laying of highways across India is being earmarked for greening the highways. Speaking at
Agriculture loans, employment and electricity for agriculture are the three top priorities for rural voters in Tamil Nadu. This was inferred from a survey conducted by non-political organisation, Association for Democratic Reforms. Comprising
Girls getting less food than boys was always considered a societal stereotype in India. A study has shown that it is unfortunately true. It has also highlighted a key deficiency in our policy approach by identifying that the difference in dietary
Several states are facing water crisis, with Maharashtra being the worst hit. Now, the technical teams of Central Water Commission and Central Ground Water Board will now study water situation in drought affected areas across the country.
Sanjay Subrahmanyan is a renowned Carnatic vocalist who has bagged several awards. The 47-year-old global performer has been chosen for ‘Sangita Kalanidhi’ award of The Music Academy. A qualified chartered accountant, Subrahmanyan&
Due to global economic slowdown, the export sector in India has been facing decline. In last two years the government has failed to achieve the fixed export target. The downfall has been noticed in commodities like crude petroleum, shipping, iron
The debate over the practice of summer vacations in the Indian judiciary has been reignited after the chief justice of India, Tirath Singh Thakur, stood in a defensive mode against prime minister Narendra Modi’s comment on reducing annual ho
Maharashtra state reported 14,209 cases of malaria, including five fatal ones, in the year 2015, but Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation [BMC] says malaria rate is now coming down. Dr Santosh Revankar, deputy executive health officer
