Trading the environment

The World Trade Organization's (wto) Trade and Environment Committee has two main agendas since the Doha round of negotiations began in 2001: to negotiate the relationship between wto's trading rules and multilateral environmental agreements (meas), and removing trade barriers on environmental goods and services. It's a limited mandate.

China is on a high

increasing economic growth has raised the levels of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide (no2) over the industrialised northeast China to the highest in the world, according to a new study of satellite images. no 2 levels from the ground to an altitude of 10 kilometres, are about 50 per cent higher than earlier bottom-up estimates, and are continuing to increase, it says.

Conservation corridors

The six Asian countries sharing the Lancang-Mekong river have agreed to build biodiversity conservation corridors in its basin -- the first in the continent. The initiative taken by Cambodia, Lao- pdr, Myanmar, China, Thailand and Vietnam, could be a blessing for wildlife in the highly fragmented habitats in the Greater Mekong Subregion (gms).

Sham, sham

Twice shy?

Partly to deflect censure over its spate of reforms announcements, the government has introduced two measures -- unemployment benefit and extension of medical benefits -- under the Employee State Insurance (esic) Corporation. These were announced in February by Union labour minister and esic chairperson K Chandrasekhara Rao.

Revamp, really?

The Union cabinet will soon revamp the existing Northeastern Industrial Development Policy (neip). But the revision is very likely to be based on a flawed review of the existing policy.

Seeds of ruin

indian farmers are neck-deep in debt. Of the 89.35 million farmer households in the country, 43.42 million (48.6 per cent) are reeling under the yoke, says a recent survey report of the National Sample Survey Organisation (nsso), under the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

Safe food?

On April 5, 2005 a group of ministers (gom), headed by the Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, cleared the draft of the Integrated Food Bill. The draft bill will now go to the union law ministry and then to the union cabinet for final approval. The Union ministry of food processing industry (mpfi), the nodal body for the new law, is expected to introduce it in the second half of the session of Parliament which resumes April 18.

Mother of all crises

a major global study of the planet's ecosystems released on March 31, 2005 warns that human actions are depleting the Earth's natural capital at a pace that threatens the planet's ability to sustain future generations. The study is expected to provide scientific inputs for international conventions, mainly ecosystem-related conventions on biodiversity, desertification and wetlands.

And the World Bank president is

Paul Wolfowitz, deputy us defence secretary, will take over as president of the World Bank (wb) when James Wolfensohn steps down in mid-2005. The ultimate shareholders of the World Bank -- the people of the world with their shares held by proxy by their respective governments -- deserve better.