Government jobs sans fringe benefits

Screen out the liar

IT IS difficult to escape advertisements. They are everywhere, on billboards, in mass media and on the Internet.

Double standards and transparency

AWAY from the conference rooms of climate talks, developed countries have begun arm-twisting developing countries to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.

Do-gooders and doubting thomases

GOVERNMENT circles seem to abound with good intentions these days. Especially with respect to the environment.

Our little understood urban dystopia

OUR understanding of Indian cities— their history, geography, sociology, politics— is seriously limited. At the time of its Independence, India was primarily a rural country. The government invested heavily in understanding rural India.

Green could go red

GREEN lingo has by now infiltrated In dia’s economic policy circles. In his pre-budget speech, Prime Minister Manmo han Singh hinted it was time India’s industrialization took the low-carbon path.

Common sense when nature calls

Waterless urinal not a clear winner Several sanitary ware providers in India now offer waterless urinals with varying technologies. The cost of the ceramic pans is far too high and low-cost plastics yet unexplored. A cheaper option is to retro-fit existing urinals with waterless technologies.

Democracy and the good road

It is a common signboard on Indian roads: Caution, men at work. It connotes everything from a nuisance for the motorist to profit for the contractors, from infrastructure addition to government reports to seasonal employment for migrant labourers. It is a space where societies clash, build and destroy.

Devices of fun and comfort

WILDLIFE tourism’s underbelly was exposed in Bandhavgarh National Park last month when a vehicle with tourists craving for a nocturnal sighting of the tiger hit the animal. The influential tourists had managed to stay in the park after it closed.

Little understood pillars of our lives

Trees, plants, and their surveyors Sightseeing packages in Kolkata sometimes involve a visit to a large garden on the city’s outskirts. Usually a hurried walk, it scarcely affords a glimpse of the 109 hectares that was called the Botanical Gardens till about a year ago, when it was renamed the Acharya Jagadis Chandra Bose Botanical Gardens. Ironic, because the Bengali polymath rarely studied the 12,000-odd trees at the garden, preferring the laboratories of Presidency College. Nothing changed at the gardens but the name.