Take Unani medicines seriously
HAKIM MOHAMMED KHALID SIDDIQUI, director of Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine, New Delhi, tells VIBHA VARSHNEY that …
Genomics could help cure cancer
Eugene W Myers , vice president for informatics research at Celera Genomics, usa , is the brain behind computer applications used to assemble …
Dilip Cherian on lobbying mechanisms
PRADIP SAHA talks to DILIP CHERIAN, founder and consulting partner of image management firm Perfect Relations, about the clash between …
`We've strong evidence that eating sugar contributes to heart disease'
Kimber Stanhope, nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis, US, is studying the health effects of fructose, a component of …
Shift grain bowl status from North to other regions of India
Balwinder Singh Sidhu, agriculture commissioner and chief conservator of soils in Punjab, is known for giving his opinion in a frank and …
‘The role of the state should be pragmatic, not ideological’
Calestous Juma is professor of Practice of International Development and faculty chair of Innovation for Economic Development Program at Harvard …
'I cannot be a mute spectator to the carnage of Ganga'
As Uttarakhand grapples with the task of repair and restoration, octogenarian environmentalist G D Agarwal's fast to free Ganga of dams continues.…
Role of climate change in tropical cyclones still unclear
Thomas Knutson is a research meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US. He was the co-chairperson …
Chhattisgarh will not allow GM crops
Chandrasekhar Sahu, agriculture minister of Chhattisgarh, is passionate about making farming a viable proposition for farmers. He has written …
Nobel winner Paul J Crutzen on the neglect of nitrogen cycle
Paul J Crutzen received the 1995 Chemistry Nobel prize for showing that nitrogen oxides react catalytically with ozone, thus accelerating …
Get a good night's sleep
March 15 is a day to celebrate good sleep and create awareness about lowering sleep problems in society through better prevention and management. …
'Bollywood stars could act in the romances around nuclear contamination'
So says Brazilian environmental journalist Norbert Suchanek who is travelling with his film festival across the world. One of its kind, the …
Treasure and the tricks
Conserving genetic purity of 750 varieties of rice with limited resources like a small piece of land and no workforce is a major challenge. Debal …
Detergents threaten India's waterbodies
Narinder K Kaushik, professor emeritus at the University of Guleph, Ontario, Canada, speaks to Nitin Sethi on the dangers of phosphate content …
Veerbhadra Mishra on Ganga Action Plan
Veerbhadra Mishra heads the Sankat Mochan Foundation, an NGO at the forefront in trying to revive the Ganga's fortunes in Varanasi. A man who …
'Privatisation has increased rural neglect'
The northeast has been badly affected by ethnic strife. DILIP GOGOI of Cotton College, Guwahati, on its vulnerabilit
Land subsidence is serious
India depends heavily on groundwater. But overextraction can cause the land to sink. A recent study found that signs of land subsidence are …
Organic goes online
India’s organic food exports have found a new strength—online traceability. Web-based TraceNet can trace an organic product right …
GM maize and its health implications for humans
Michael Antoniou, head of the Nuclear Biology Group in the UK, has been studying the health effects of genetically modified (GM) crops since 1995.…
River restoration is not just an ecological act
Despite decades of restoration efforts by a rich ensemble of state-development actors, cultural heritage votaries and rights activists, the …
'Poor nations need Codex education'
Sanjay Dave, director of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), was recently elected chairperson of …
Ramsar is not a strong, strict and rigid convention
India has listed 16 wetlands under the Ramsar sites, but with no policies, knowledge or interest shown by the authorities, proper management is …
'NGT must have suo motu powers'
Justice Swatanter Kumar has been chairing the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for nearly two years now. In an interview to Down To Earth, he speaks …
‘Manipulate market, lower drug prices’
In times of rising costs of healthcare compounded by shortage of funds, UNITAID, a UN organisation, was set up in 2006 to improve access to life-…
‘Ganga basin temperatures to rise by 1-2°C by 2050’
Eddy Moors, who heads the Earth System Sciences and Climate Change group at Alterra Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands, …