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Cover Story

Since the 1990s developing nations have been on a treaty spree, signing a vast number of bilateral and regional investment treaties to attract funds for development. But as the figure of investment treaties has shot up so have the claims for damages from investor companies, which are seeking billions of dollars in compensation on account of regulatory laws. Poor countries are finding that footloose investments are cutting access to water, damaging public health and the environment, and endangering ethnic communities. As transnational firms challenge regulatory laws, countries are forced to retract, and pay damages. Rich states have become equally vulnerable.

Latha Jishnu sifts through case studies and speaks to international lawyers, academics, researchers and development experts to uncover the hidden dangers of investment treaties. The most chilling feature is the role of a cabal of claims attorneys who are making colossal profit at the cost of nations, and sustainable life

Editor's page

Why excreta matters

Water is life and sewage tells its life story. This is the subject of the Citizens’ Seventh Report on the State of India’s Environment, Excreta Matters: How urban India is soaking up water, polluting rivers and drowning in its own excreta. It has a seemingly simple plot: it only asks where Indian cities get their water from and where does their waste go. But this is not just a question or answer about water, pollution and waste. It is about the way Indian cities (and perhaps other parts of the world that are similarly placed) will develop. It is about the paradigm of growth that’s sustainable and affordable.

News

Difficult to digest

After much debate, the Cabinet cleared the food security bill. Will it really ensure food for every Indian?

Ministry indifferent to illegal mining

Shows cold response to recommendations on curbing illegal mining of iron, manganese

US sets mercury emission limits

India still far from setting standards for toxic pollutants from power plants

Cleared at cost of biodiversity

Environment ministry clears hydro project rejected twice by its advisory committee

Interview

Justice league for people’s rights

In June 1979, an innovation in the field of law and politics came about in the form of Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. The idea behind it is identifying and publicising cases...

India’s many investment treaties make it vulnerable

Senior international lawyer Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, who heads the investment programme of the International Institute on Sustainable Development (IISD), has written extens...

Secretive tribunals, hidden damages

Canadian academic Gus Van Harten is well known for his efforts to reform the global investment treaty regime through his research papers, conference presentations and a monograph,...

Patently Absurd

Small brother is watching you

Private policing of Internet backed by courts is leading to censorship that affects everyone

Science & Technology

Science and Technology - Briefs

Quest for life

Will any of the 716 planets discovered outside the solar system be habitable?

Bite that mosquitoes love

It depends on the diversity of skin bacteria

Aryan invasion debunked

Genetic study shows South Asians have a diverse ancestry

Watch before you eat

Air pollution contributes to heavy metals in vegetables

Power shoe

Apart from fitness there is another good reason one should walk: charging mobile phone. Mandar Tulankar, an engineering student in Nagpur, has designed a charger that fits into a sports shoe and charges cell phones simply by the energy generated by walking. He talks to Aparna Pallavi about his innovation

Web Check

Roots of geekdom

THIS is the online version of the Computer History Museum At Mountain View in California, USA. The site’s latest addition is a multimedia exhibition that traces the history of modern computing, from the abacus to the smartphone.

Special Report

Up for scrutiny

Environment ministry sets up certification scheme for its forests

Cash clogged

Will Delhi’s ambitious sewerage plan help clean the Yamuna?

Cheated for bauxite

Andhra Pradesh circumvents all regulations to mine bauxite from tribal land

Gender balance gadget

States turn to dubious technology for saving girl child

Rise of livestock

Agriculture sector undergoes a historic change as livestock surpasses the economy of food grain

Feature

Penny foolish, pond wise

Once parched, Dewas in Madhya Pradesh is now a lush green district

Crosscurrent

Farms in cities

A case for urban agriculture in India

Review

My genetic profile

In the early years of this century, companies such as deCODEme and 23andMe launched personal gene profiling services, heralding the era of consumer genetics. Their operations are subjects of investigation of Danish science writer Lone Frank’s new book, My Beautiful Genome. The investigation allows Frank to come to terms with a few personal demons: a family history of depression, alcoholism and breast cancer.

From the blurbs

The politics of climate change and the global crisis: mortgaging our future by Praful Bidwai, Orient Blackswan, Rs 750

This book has dual focus: one, impacts of climate change and the politics of international negotiations; two, lndia as an example of an “emerging economy” major polluter, which can both aid or obstruct the fight against climate change. It analyses the role of the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, China) grouping and the short-term calculations of other major players in the climate talks.

Media

McDonald’s takes a bow

The burger has lost to empanada in Bolivia. Fourteen years after it began operations in the country, McDonald’s served its last hamburgers in Bolivia on December 24. Bolivia becomes the only Latin American nation without a McDonald’s.

A rare inheritance

Original blueprints of the ship, Discovery, used by explorer Robert Scott for his South Pole expedition, have turned up at a shipyard worker’s home in East Yorkshire in the UK more than 100 years after his voyage.

News Snippets

>> Leading American actor Angelina Jolie’s Bosnia war film, In the Land of Blood and Honey, has been honoured by Hollywood movie producers’ guild for its portrayal of social issues.

Battle over paper

The Argentine government has won control of the country’s newsprint supplies after a vote in the Senate.

Putting face to violence

Fifty two unlikely models stare down at passersby from giant black-and-white posters in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. They are all mothers who have lost their children to the criminal violence that is plaguing the country.

A panda isn’t sweet

BBC has caused furore by choosing a panda as one of its 12 women of 2011. Tian Tian (aka Sweetie) was selected by the BBC magazine for its faces of the year 2011. The men’s page included the actor Colin Firth and prospective Republic presidential nominee Herman Cain. Sweetie, staying at Edinburgh zoo, is on loan from Beijing.

Art aid

The Cairo-based Arab Network for Human Rights Information has launched a website (www.anhri.net/en/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ cartoonistguide.png), which it describes as a cartoonist’s guide to social networks. The website is meant to help Arab artists in using social networks for artistic production or publishing their production.

Letters

Letters - January 31, 2012

Safe or unsafe?

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