A RECENT decision of the Goa government to amend the Panchayat Raj Act, 1993, has been opposed by civil society groups. The Goa Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill 2009 empowers the panchayat secretary, a governmentappointed official, to bypass the elected sarpanch and members of the gram sabha while executing government orders.
VIEW FINDER NOT A USUAL EXERCISE Soldiers smell the ground to detect bodies of flash flood victims in Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot battered the island"s southern region in the second week of August. The typhoon, which Met officials call the deadliest in 50 years, also triggered mudslides; one such mudslide
OCEANS ARE DYING: Ocean deserts where very few organisms can survive due to scanty supply of nutrients are expanding. These vast stretches of barren sea could affect the marine food chain, and in turn the global fish stock, said scientists from North America who analyzed satellite data between 1997 and 2007. There are five ocean deserts, one each in the North and South Pacific, North
IN JULY 2008, when the Doha talks to liberalize trade among member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) broke down, the US blamed India. This year, when India tried to revive the talks at a two-day informal meet of ministers from 30 countries in Delhi, the US did not seem keen to clinch the agreement. The two-day mini-Doha meeting was held on September 3-4. At the end of the
