Feature Article

As governments keep assigning functions to the panchayats, the pressure is showing in the performance of the elected representatives. "When I got elected as sarpanch, I thought I would do a lot for

Panchayati raj has many failures. And, many ways of looking at it THE discussion on panchayats remains polarised. Proponents of new economic models and privatisation decry panchayati raj as

Jharkhand has been losing out nearly Rs 100 crore each year because it doesn't have panchayat bodies. The last election took place in 1971, when Jharkhand was a part of Bihar. Since the state's

Ratan Tata's offer to help find funds to remove the toxic waste in UCC's Bhopal plant is inconsistent with the `polluter pays' principle.

Simultaneous determination of oxytetracycline, 4-epioxytetracycline, ?-apooxytetracycline, tetracycline and ?-apooxytetracycline on C18 columns has been accomplished using a high performance liquid chromatographic method with UV detection. Separation was achieved on a Hypersil BDS RP-C18 column (250 mm

The Hindu of December 13, 2006 published a write-up on Singur on its op-ed page: "Some facts, please' by cpi(m) politburo member and leading intellectual Brinda Karat. She was countering what she called a smear campaign against the cpim) over the acquisition of land for the proposed Tata Motors project at Singur. There are some more facts, however, that I would like to bring to her notice. But before that I would also like to thank her for having brought some key issues to the fore.

Botswana's autochthonous Bushmen (or the San people) have won legal rights to return to their ancestral homeland in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, after the High Court of Botswana ruled against

This Borneo tree frog, Rhacophorus gadingensis, is one of 52 new species scientists have discovered on the Indonesian island of Borneo, between July 2005 and September 2006. The list includes 30

• China has successfully launched its second geostationary orbit meteorological satellite, Fengyun-2D (FY-2D), to provide better weather forecasting services for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Breaking an 11-month-long impasse, Colombia has resumed spraying of the herbicide glyphosate along parts of its border with Ecuador. The move is aimed at destroying illegal coca crops. Coca is used