Disclosure-shy industry

Pharma and biotech firms are lobbying hard to block disclosure of origin of genetic material used in inventions, but they also raise thorny issues

The civil spring

Have an aggressive government and an overreaching judiciary curbed dissent?

Clash of the cyberworlds

In an increasingly digital world, the issue of Internet freedom and governance has become hugely contested. Censorship and denial of access occur …

The Avon lady lifts our biodiversity

Loopholes in the Biological Diversity Act being used to export India’s genetic material

With a pinch of salt

Fast food can be made less salty, finds research. But companies refuse to do so

Trade barred

Countries protect their renewable energy equipment. Exporting nations see it as trade barrier  

Battle for the Internet

As the Internet becomes the public square and the marketplace of our world, it is increasingly becoming a contested terrain. Its potential for …

Universal health scare

The country’s planners are debating how to provide healthcare to all. In a drastic shift from the 65-year-old public health system, the …

Climate of irrationality

Developed and developing countries are divided over regulating super greenhouse gases under Montreal Protocol

Durban diary: a visual journal

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 …

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 …

Future compromised

The Earth Summit was a historical opportunity to set the world on the correct development trajectory. Negotiators from 191 countries came …