No concrete plans

The cement industry is India's ultimate sunshine industry. Up until the 1980s, it was not growing phenomenally. Now it is. After cement was decontrolled in 1989, the industry took off -- its growth rate far outstripping that of the country's gross domestic product. In terms of production capacity, it has grown almost two-and-a-half times -- from 61 million tonnes in 1989-90 to 157.5 in 2003-2004.

On paper

The Top 3 What makes these companies the best #1 ITC Ltd-Bhadrachalam Unit For technology leapfrog -- for eliminating toxic chlorine from the bleaching process; proactively reaching farmers, exhorting them to grow wood. Mind, water use in this plant is still too high; effluent disposal still pollutes the river.

Setting Out

since the release of the environmental rating of the automobile sector by the Centre for Science and Environment several people have told us that it must have taken some courage to rate the auto sector, which is headed by some of the most powerful industrial stalwarts like Rahul Bajaj and Ratan Tata. We had never thought on these lines. On the contrary, we found the industry extremely docile and cooperative.

Science for ecology

Down To Earth and the Centre for Science and Environment announce that the winner of the 2001 Green Scientist Award is V P Sharma , former head of the Malaria Research Centre.

A belief in tradition

Freedom pitch

Liu Xiaobo, a writer and human rights activist, was sentenced to prison for 11 years in 2009 for expressing his wish to see peaceful political change in China.

Science And Technology - Briefs

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Oxygen therapy for oil spill

News 360 ° - Briefs

US $1 TRILLION WORTH OF MINERALS

Degrees of insensitivity

The mayor of a Japanese town, which conducts an annual dolphin hunt, has protested the Academy Award given to The Cove, a documentary on grisly slaughter.

Living the report

In March 2004, a group of Dalit women from Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region stood on a stage in a plush Delhi auditorium.