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LUCKNOW: The Planning Commission report has indicted Mayawati government for having failed to create an investment climate in the state.

Ever since Mayawati took over as chief minister in May 2007, her government has been blaming the Centre for creating hurdles in the development of the state.

Far from seeing more “green shoots” for a return to high growth, as the Government was looking forward to, the monsoon failure has cast a shadow on current year's economic prospects. This at a time when food prices (rice, pulses, sugar and edible oils) are already ruling at unbearable levels for the average citizen in the country, even if subsidised foodgrains are made available to persons below poverty level in certain states.

New York: With Asia being the world's most vulnerable place for natural disasters, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed the need for boosting efforts across the continent to prepare for catastrophes before they occur.

New York: An estimated 50 million women in Asia, who are either married or in long-term relationships with men who engage in high-risk sexual behaviours, are at risk of becoming infected with HIV from their partners, according to a new report published by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Regardless of what happens to the contentious dispute, also called epic battle, between the Ambani brothers over the supply of natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari Basin, three things are crystal-clear. One, the dispute's huge political dimension dwarfs its legal or commercial issues such as the agreement signed between Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries and Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources on the purchase of the gas at a particular price. Battle-lines stand drawn between political parties over whom they'll back. The Supreme Court hearing scheduled for September 1 will further polarise opinion.

Even before the BJP's chintan baithak or introspective session gets under way, a proposal is doing the rounds that L.K. Advani will remain the leader of the opposition till 2014. Although Advani had expressed a desire to step down from the post after the party's electoral setback, he was persuaded to stay on lest a contest exposed the party's internal rifts.

New York: Proposed media laws in Venezuela could be used as a tool for political intimidation and would seriously curtail press freedom and potentially criminalize legitimate dissent, an independent United Nations human rights expert warned today.

New York: With 118 days left until the start of the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, where nations are aiming to conclude a new pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the latest round of talks has started today in Bonn, Germany.

NEW DELHI: Contractorisation and casualisation of labour on a large scale has become the bane of the labour movement in the country. Though much of it is against the law of the land, it has the tacit support of successive governments, the NDA followed by the UPA.

JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has apparently managed to get time to sort out the contentious issue of job reservation for the agitating Gujjar community. The Bill passed by the last assembly when BJP was in power has been pending with the State Governor for his assent.