Troubled Beautiful Minds
They are there—each residential area has its mentally disturbed people; each family has anecdotes of crazy relatives. Nobody wants to …
A treaty too many
India is learning that there is a heavy price to be paid for the large number of bilateral investment treaties, or BITs, it has signed in the …
'It is strange that government promotes products which directly cause cancer'
Pankaj Chaturvedi, associate professor and head and neck cancer surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, was recently honoured with the Judy …
Organic thread
Even as Bt cotton invaded Indian fields in the past few years, some farmer groups kept pushing for organic cotton. In 2009-10, production in …
GM crop benefits are all in future
Nearly 40 years ago, Marc Van Montagu of Ghent University in Belgium, along with fellow researcher Jeff Schell, discovered that Agrobacterium …
Sponge iron’s dirty growth
In the years to come, India's expanding steel production will be largely driven by sponge iron. But its manufacturing process, based on coal, is …
Foss time in India
Microsoft is the most familiar term in the proprietary software industry. The company's penetration in people's minds is so deep that it is often …
Time-out
The 17th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Durban in December 2011. Negotiations were heated and …
Gentle on critical pollution
After declaring 43 industrial areas in India as critically polluted and imposing a moratorium on their expansion, the Union Ministry of …
Road to disaster
Fertile land is up for grabs in western Uttar Pradesh. Private developers are acquiring it to build apartments, industries, IT institutes, and …
Logjam
Whenever the Supreme Court pulls the trigger, why does it miss the target? Because governments like those of the seven Northeast states work …
FIGHTING FOR AIR
Weighed down by extremely high levels of particles in the air, some Indian cities seem to be coming of age with regard to vehicular air pollution.…
Sunshine sector loses sheen
About 40 kilometres from Delhi, in the bustling real estate market of Noida-Greater Noida, lies the biggest irony that the renewable energy …
30,000 farmers demand Hirakud dam water
Western Orissa is witnessing an upheaval. In the eye of the storm is the Hirakud dam. Over 300,000 farmers dependent on its water for irrigation …
Treasure in troubled land
International aid has supported the economy of Afghanistan for 12 years. With aid flow gradually declining, the war-torn country will now have to …
Smokestacks lightening?
Emissions are bound to increase. The power sector improves, but others will spew more, especially iron and steel
Andhra Pradesh's killer pharma industry
The pharmaceutical industry is booming in the environs of Hyderabad. But poor regulation means local people are having to pay the price of …
Green standards put india in the red
Several Western nations have decided to stipulate high environmental standards for the goods they import. The step demands the substitution of …
Back to the pollution board
Industrialists in Agra and Firozabad are in a tizzy about the Supreme Court's order to close down more than 200 polluting industrial units near …
Housing Scheme
Hermit crabs aren't fussy creatures. Faced with a housing crunch, in many parts of the world, they have taken up abode in plastic and junk left …
Illusions of grandeur
Only a drastic change in policy and management will put Majestic Auto on the fast track. As of now, the company is simply an 'also ran'
Models in mutilation
Modern industrial design, pandering to essentially Western consumer-led markets, has spelt doom for the environment. The author, therefore, …
Winding roads to welfare
Humans just do not live by bread alone. But to climb the steps leading to total welfare, somewhere that equilibrium between work and …
"Farmer's income is more important than foodgrain production"
Eminent agricultural scientist and chairperson, National Commission for Farmers (NCF), M S Swaminathan talks to Sourav Misra on agricultural …
The holy book and the sacred list
The iucn' s Red List for prioritising species for protection is beset by serious flaws