Can government be its own watchdog?
The Union government has finally set itself free. No longer will it have to perform the dirty, stressful and thankless task of redressing …
Puritanism will not cure AIDS
Union health minister Sushma Swaraj is brandishing a new poultice to wrap around the AIDS menace. It is a purifying prescription called '…
Boon or menace?
Public interest litigations come under a cloud once again as the Prime Minister questions their viability
A beaten path
Suresh Prabhu is by no means breaking new ground. He is merely mouthing the same promise made time and again, but never fulfilled, by his predecessors
Win some, lose most
To find out what the Union Budget has in store for science and the environment, Down To Earth spoke to environmentalists and representatives …
Reach the last person
Will that crippling scourge called polio be wiped out from the face of the earth by the end of this year? The World Health Organization (WHO) …
The unaccounted wealth that leaves our shores
The Indian government invests Rs 34 lakh to educate each IIT graduate. It therefore has the moral authority to get him or her to work for the …
One goal, two roads
Non-governmental organisations are taking the government's proposal for cooperation in poverty alleviation with a healthy pinch of salt
We propose, greens dispose
...thus decried Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, on the issue of power projects which may have let the power into but thrown the ecology in a state …
Act of omission
The government's latest commission on water may end up churning out myopic, big-dam-centred policies
Pilfering citizens' rights
The latest Gowdaspeak is a draft bill that would restrict people's access to courts to agitate against environmental mismanagement
"Ad" nauseum: Science and technology
It is "payback" time for the scientific establishment too! The incumbent Indian government, keen to amass political capital well before the next …
The statistician who "planned" India
P C Mahalanobis can rightly be called the father of Indian statistics. Today, in the year of his birth centenary, he is remembered not only as …
Working to cleanse the Ganga
Several government and voluntary agencies are involved in the onerous task of cleaning up the country's best-known river.
Killed by indifference
When two young people die in a highway accident, is it destiny or a callous and indifferent administration?
Road to nowhere
By amending the National Highways Act, Prime Minister Deve Gowda seems to be "giving an open charter of exploitation to the building lobby"
Hear, hear!
The industry begrudges being left in the dark about the Cabinet's decision to form an environment appellate authority competent to tackle …
The never-green Gowda
The Prime Minister of India, in a rush to roll on the wheel of development, projects himself as an arrogant autocrat. His disregard for all …
Billed for conservation
A bill, to be tabled in Parliament early next year, will promote energy conservation in the industrial sector
What is the review committee up to?
The Narmada Bachao Andolan says it is content with the Narmada project review panel, but the government says there will be no change in the …
Rise in medical education fees on the cards
Prompted by a financial crunch, the ministry of health is considering raising fees in medical colleges to recover costs
Opium dreams lull most youth in UP district
Opium and its derivatives hold almost complete sway over the lives of most of the youth of Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur district, where the Union …
Farmers against even modest power rate hike
State ministers are giving the agriculture sector a breather by ignoring the Prime Minister's call to stop subsidising power supply and agreeing …
Streamlining forest protection law
States are complaining that project clearance delays are turning out to be the worst fallout of the Forest Conservation Act, which has otherwise …
Same problem, differing approaches
The government is roping in NGOs in the fight against pollution whereas industry is trying cleaner manufacturing processes