Hyderabad: One-third of schools in rural areas of the state do not have provisions for toilets for girls, while another third has toilets that are either locked or unusable.

This is despite several orders by the Supreme Court over the last two years to ensure provision of toilets in all schools and a deadline of March to comply with. According to the Annual Status of Education Report 2012, only 38 per cent of schools in rural Andhra Pradesh have toilets that can be used by girl students.

NEW DELHI: With learning levels in the country dipping to an all-time low it is states like Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand where the least number of children can read, while those in Chha

Reliance Power has petitioned power sector regulator CERC for permission to revise tariff of its 4,000 MW Sasan project in Madhya Pradesh due to rise in taxes and user charges.

Sasan Power Ltd, the special purpose vehicle of Reliance Power set up to build this 4,000 MW project, has filed a petition with CERC seeking tariff revision from Sasan plant on account of rise in user charges.

Sounding a strong warning, including severe shortage of coal for thermal power plants, the Coal Ministry has predicted serious implications for the southern States of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and many northern and western States if important railway lines connecting coal fields in Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh are not completed in the next three years.

In a note to the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Railways, the Coal Ministry has stated that it would not be possible for the State-run Coal India Limited (CIL) to achieve either the targeted production of 615 million tonnes of coal by 2016-17 or any incremental coal production during the 12th Five Year Plan if the railway tracks in these three coal producing States are not put in place in the next three years.

Tata Steel has been asked by the Ministry of Environment and Forests panel to get forest clearances prior to seeking environment nod for its coal mining project in Jharkhand.

“Mining has only resulted in displacement of lakhs of tribal families instead of creating jobs for them”

Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday urged the governments in the mineral-rich Naxal-affected States to focus on development of agriculture and implementation of rural development programmes instead of focusing on mining to create employment. Addressing a gathering of Dongaria and Kutia Kandha tribal groups on the foothills of Niyamgiri hills in this tribal-dominated block of Kalahandi district, Mr. Ramesh underlined the need for prioritising agriculture and rural development saying that mining in the country’s mineral-rich States such as Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand had only added to the people’s miseries. Mining had only resulted in displacement of lakhs of tribal families instead of proving to be beneficial for them, he added.

This would boost NTPC's valuation ahead of its Rs 12,000 cr disinvestment this fiscal

The Power Ministry is in constant touch with Coal Ministry to speed up the re-allocation of three mines to NTPC, which would boost the power producer's valuation ahead of its Rs 12,000 crore disinvestment this fiscal. The government has decided to re-allocate three coal blocks -- Chatti-Bariatu, Kerandari and Chatti-Bariatu (South) -- to NTPC but all the necessary clearances are not in place.

India will soon revise its malaria mortality figures, with the new estimates expected to be at least 20 times more than what the health ministry portrays at present.

A 16-member committee of the Indian Council of Medical Research, headed by its former director general Dr Padam Singh Pradhan, has found that the actual number of malaria deaths in India on an average would be around 40,297 — around 40 times higher than present estimates. In a first such admission, India's National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) chief Dr AC Dhariwal told TOI that India's malaria mortality figure was definitely much higher than what is officially quoted.

As Gujarat readies itself to hold an event to showcase its business-friendly environment, there is some good news for the state. A report released today shows it replaced Tamil Nadu in terms of freest state in 2011.

The report, co-published by the Cato Institute, Academic Foundation, Indicus Analytics and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, says on a scale of 0 to 1 points, Gujarat scored 0.64 points, followed by Tamil Nadu at 0.56. Tamil Nadu was the freest state in 2009.

Top planners of the country have asserted that pricing and rationing are the most important tools to make optimal use of the most precious natural resource - water - and achieve sustainable development even though states, bound by political compulsions and fiercely protective of control over water management, may never agree to it.

Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia says pricing of water and rationing by regulation are the most effective tools to stop the gross misuse of water resources, even though they are very difficult decisions.