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- Poison in disguise 1
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- Grand distraction called river interlinking 28
- Eat at your own risk 27
- Green energy takes toll on green cover 26
- Temporary solution, permanent jam 25
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Contents page
Jan 15-31, 2004
Cover Story
NIDHI JAMWAL wonders what happened after Gurgaon got colonyfied
Editor's page
News
What is poverty? The Planning Commission is set to undertake an exercise to find a quantifiable answer to the question. It has proposed to the Union government to set up an expert group to redefine poverty and, consequently, reassess the percentage of India's population living below the poverty line. The last such revision was done in 1993
The Union ministry of agriculture has moved an amendment to the Seeds Act, 1966, and also proposes to create a National Seeds Grid. While the aim of the former is to improve labels on seeds to help the farmer, the latter seeks to facilitate the availability of seeds. The effectiveness of both the moves is being debated
The Bankariyas, a forest-dweller community of central Nepal, have been uprooted from their traditional habitat and are living like refugees in their own country. Several other indigenous groups have suffered the same fate. The eight-year-old war between the Royal Nepal Army and Maoist rebels that has ravaged the country's environment is responsible for their plight
The US Environmental Protection Agency has kickstarted the cleanup drive for highway motorcycles by revising their emission standards after two and a half decades. The new norms, which are more stringent, were notified on December 23 and will come into effect in 2006. When implemented fully, they are estimated to reduce hydrocarbon and oxides of nitrogen emissions by about 54,000 tonnes a year
Thirty years after they were abandoned for good, nuclear reactors are making a fatal comeback in the US spacecrafts. In 2003, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was notified about a federal commitment of US $3 billion to develop nuclear-fuelled engines in the next five years. The sum is three times more than what was promised previously. Appallingly, the Bush administration's decision to broaden the nation's nuclear-powered rocket programme, called Project Prometheus, came soon after the 2003 Columbia space shuttle mishap
Since its inception, the agro-biotech industry has had a unique selling proposition -- transgenic crops need lesser herbicides/pesticides than conventional varieties, therefore their use can help control environmental pollution. But a new report indicates that the claim is hollow
A US-based firm has recently launched a high-tech gadget in India with the alluring promise of resolving the water crisis. 'Watermaker', a product of Atmospheric Water Technology Incorporation (AWT), extracts water from air. It is being marketed across the country by Watermaker India (WMI), AWT's Mumbai-based subsidiary
The 91st Indian Science Congress was old wine in a tainted bottle
Another panchayat's stand endorsed by Kerala HC
Fresh outbreak of SARS, avian flu
It could help the Indian farmer manage risks better. If it works
But the South feels cheated
Panel for second look at diverting protected forests
That, too, for very long
Trade threatens Brazilian nuts
Black soot responsible for 25 per cent of global warming
Use of pesticides is responsible for the arsenic crisis
Interview
In 2002, at least 42,221 small hydropower (SHP) stations were operating in China, supplying adequate power to more than 300 million people. This achievement is the result of met...
Factsheet
Health gap widens between the poorest and the rest
Feature
The world's powers celebrated Christmas 2003 in style: they sent robotic geologists to the red planet Mars, Earth's uninviting and hostile neighbour. Two major space-faring powers, the European Union and the US, extended their race for space supremacy to Mars with their spacecraft landing on the planet within 10 days of each other
Kanji, a ready-to-serve traditional drink, can help you win a few hearts very easily. It is essentially fermented water, which is made yummy with the help of kali gajjar (purple coloured carrots) and a few spices. It is relished in Northern India. Kanji's recipe is a part of our traditional knowledge
India has come out with maps of its biodiversity-rich regions, one of the first countries to do so in the world. It was the fruit of a five-year project, jointly undertaken by the Department of Biotechnology and the Department of Space, which began in 1997. The survey covered 84,000 square kilometers (sq km), comprising 44 per cent of total forest cover of India. The regions mapped extensively are the Northeast region, Western Himalaya, Western Ghats and Andaman & Nicobar Islands
An NGO in Barmer has launched Tharparker animal breed improvement programmes in Minjrad and another village in the district. Two pure Tharparker bulls were brought in, one each from the two government breeding farms, to maintain diversity within the stock...
Le Corbusier's city is getting a face-lift. A unique programme of the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh (MCC), is ridding the city of the most difficult component of waste -- debris, commonly known as malba. Malba, when mixed with solid waste, makes both composting and burning difficult. "During construction and renovation a lot of malba is generated, which is disposed of carelessly. To check this, MCC has launched the Malba Collection Scheme...
Debate
In the last decade or so, India has had an economic reforms regime, whose key mantras are privatisation and liberalisation. Our policy-makers denounce the public sector as inefficient. But this is only a ruse for proffering the control of essential services to the private sector. Even water -- the basic necessity of life -- has not escaped the greed of private companies and government officials. On the legal premise that they are "persons" with rights, private corporations demand, and then siphon off, enormous quantities of limited fresh water for industrial or commercial purposes -- often at the cost of domestic requirements
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal are home to six tribal groups: the Nicobarese, the Shompens, the Great Andamanese, Onges, Sentinalese and the Jarawas. These tribals -- with the exception of the Nicobarese -- are on the brink of extinction today. The Jarawa population has dwindled to a measly 250. The 129 kilometre Andaman Trunk Road (atr) tears through the forests, which the islanders inhabit, bringing with it 'mainstream civilisation', tobacco, diseases, death and extinction
Parthenium, a notorious weed, first sneaked into the country along with wheat grains imported from the us in the early 1950s. It has become a widespread menace ever since. The plant is a rapid coloniser and differs from other weeds in its remarkable adaptability to all kinds of soils and climatic conditions. During its initial years in India, parthenium flowered between February to April in the western part of India and between August to October in eastern India
Opinion
At that annual ritual called the Indian Science Congress, the Union minister of science and technology read out the prime minister's speech. It mentioned the need to draw in scientists of Indian origin back to the country, to reverse the brain drain and deal with challenges like water scarcity. The intention was noble. Now, how will the expatriate scientist community help us solve water scarcity?
Global warming doesn't sound quite right when half of India is reeling under a cold wave. We apologise. But the World Meteorological Organisation recently announced that 2003 was the third hottest year since weather records started. The first and the second warmest years are also in the collective rapid access memory -- 1998 and 2002, respectively. Climate change used to be a theoretical discussion once upon a time. Today, it is real
Good job bringing this to light. People won't realise how huge the problem is and municipalities are woefully ill equipped to...
Agreed; mining can never be sustainable, but then how do you get the metals to make all the things you need in the course of...
Very good piece.