Poor response to tenders called for on two earlier occasions As there is poor response to taking up extraction of sand in the non-Coastal Regulatory Zone areas, the district administration is considering relaxing norms and allowing people from outside the district to extract sand, said Minister in-charge of Dakshina Kannada …

Material to be presented tomorrow Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said on Monday that the Supreme Court will set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) if the material relied on by the Maharashtra government to raid and arrest five activists on August 28 in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case is …

The Green Agriculture project synergises biodiversity conservation, agriculture production, and development India is signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity. As four of the 35 biodiversity hotspots are located in India, it is biodiversity-rich. However, climate change and development without consideration for biodiversity are leading to loss of biodiversity. India’s …

Ad hoc steps to check the currency’s decline must not deflect from the deeper problems The rupee, which is currently the worst-performing currency in Asia, is finally receiving some help from the authorities. The Union government, after a meeting with Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel, on Friday announced …

The law should be enforced vigorouslyto eliminate manual scavenging in its entirety The death of five young men who were employed to clean a septic tank in an upmarket residential community in New Delhi is a shocking reminder that India’s high-profile sanitation campaign has done little to alter some basic …

This newspaper always draws the line between news and views A reader wrote to us wondering whether discussions on technological disruptions and their impact on the news ecology are a ploy to deflect attention from the failings of the news media. He listed a set of “non-stories” — speculations at …

Reinvigorate the crop insurance scheme to provide social protection to every farmer Excess rains and floods in Kerala, deficit rainfall in eastern and north-eastern India, and associated large-scale crop losses have again highlighted the need for providing social protection to poor farmers. A highly subsidised Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana …

The Kerala model can be implemented across India with the same secular and gender-sensitive spirit Kumari died on September 1. She had contracted leptospirosis while doing relief work in Kerala after the floods, away from her own home which had not been affected. She was a health volunteer and prominent …

There are several moderate but effective instruments available to the government to help the rupee find an equilibrium The travails of the rupee have dominated newspaper headlines over the last fortnight. Its value has fallen precipitously against the dollar, and is now hovering around the 72 level; it was just …

Archaeologists have discovered a statue of a lion’s body and a human head in the southern city of Aswan, Egypt. Antiquities Ministry said the sphinx made of sandstone was found in the Temple of Kom Ombo. It dates back to the Ptolemaic Dynasty, which ruled Egypt for some 300 years …