Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of News Item titled "2 killed in blast at illegal cracker unit in Thanjavur appearing in The Hindu dated 19.05.2025". The application is registered suo-motu on the basis of the news item titled 2 killed in blast at illegal cracker unit …
A RESTRUCTURING exercise at the World Wide Fund for Nature International (WWFI) in mid-January is neck deep in controversy. The official version: 31 staff positions have been made redundant in an attempt to cut costs and decentralise operations at the WWFI secretariat at Gland, Switzerland. Critics believe that the slashes …
An unique insurance policy linked to growing teak trees has been launched by Ceylinco Insurance, a Sri Lankan insurance company. A policyholder of Ruk Rekawaranaya (protection of trees) reaps several benefits: as a leaseholder of a plot with 25 teak trees; and as a profitsharer when the policy matures. Besides, …
The Supreme Court has directed all industries involved in mining or producing asbestos to create adequate healthcare mechanisms for diagnoses and treatment of workers engaged in these units. The industries have been asked to maintain a health record of every worker upto a period of 40 years from the beginning …
THE agitation against the upcoming Rs 600 crore Thapar DuPont nylon 6,6 plant in Ponda taluk in Goa took an ugly turn on January 23 when protestors blockading the approach to the site were fired upon by the police, killing 1. Following the incident and the intensification of resistence by …
Daimler-Benz, the epitome of swank cars, is now all set to enter the world of multimedia ventures, announced Edzard Reuter, the group's chairperson. Currently, Daimler-Benz is holding "exploratory" talks with the country's largest media conglomerates to work out a viable deal. The company is also preparing to launch a range …
FOR Russians, 'genetic engineering' may soon become a medical Chechnya... to be done away with. Currently, the Russian government is debating over a draft law that would strictly regulate all genetic experiments, from basic research involving recombinant DNA to industrial efforts, in order to engineer transgenic plants and pollutant-eating microbes. …
Fisherpeople in 4 coastal fishing villages near Karachi are up in arms against the Pak government. The eye of the storm is a proposal to build an oil pipeline across the Gangiaro Creek which serves the entire coastal belt of Thatta up to Shah Bander and Keti Bander. They were …
OVER the last few decades, the whirlwind of technology has changed the face of diagnosis, and medical treatment. 40 years ago, if a patient suffering from "effort angina" approached the physician, he would do a complete physical examination and after a series of tests, conclude that the patient is suffering …
British trade unions are now considering launching "hi-tech" campaigns. Unison, Britain's biggest trade union, spent US $480,000 last year developing a software system called "Local Negotiator" to help negotiators to do longer campaigns. It deals with decentralised bargaining across the public services networks. By using electronic communications and database, the …
Toxic waste is wreaking environmental havoc in Karachi. A technical survey by the Scope Environmental Management Research and Information Centre reports that Karachi's 1,900 industrial units and 200 hospitals churn out nearly 75 tonnes of solid hazardous industrial waste a day. The absence of environmental regulations, proper waste treatment facilities, …
For the victims of Alzheimer's disease, Japan's Eisai Co brings good tidings. It has teamed up with the American Pfizer Inc to develop a drug to treat the disease. The medicine, to be manufactured from Eisai's compound E2020, is currently in phase II trials in Japan. It functions by increasing …
THE Union ministry of environment and forests has finalised a strategy for the formulation of a Waste Minimisation Circle (WMC) consisting of industrialists in a particular region to encourage them to share information on economically-viable and efficient waste reduction systems. The modalities for forming a WMC are based upon the …
Education in Bangladesh seems to be heading for a disaster because of a severe paper shortage. Irked by the crisis, students have taken to rallies and demonstrations. Given that the country, with a literacy rate of 23 per cent, can hardly afford this, the government's responses have been inadequate. Although …
To strengthen the link between industry and R&D; centres, a cess should be imposed on the pharmaceuticals industry whereby 2.5 per cent of its turnover is invested in research into new diseases. Also, use of laboratory facilities of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research by industry should be against …
Letter to deputy forest protector, East Kutch forest department to the Kutch collector on matter pertaining allocation of land located at Mudra Taluka, Kutch District on rent to Adani Chemicals Ltd, for the production of salt.
Who is to blame for the world's environmental woes-the poor nations or the rich countries? The developed countries show high resource consumption patterns that make them the bigger polluters. But this is not to say that the developing nations are off the high population growth weak environmental regulations and use …
For US armed forces it is now adieu metals, and welcome plastics. Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have designed plastic-composite nosecones for shoulder-fired missiles for the marines. Plastic composites are inexpensive and lighter than metal parts. Difficult to produce, they were ignored by manufacturers. But the researchers have developed …
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is expanding its list of 17 heavily polluting industrial sectors to 24, although it has failed to enforce compliance from the units already under the highly polluting category. A recent CPCB status report on the action taken to control pollution in "problem areas" points …
The European Court of Justice has finally given its verdict on the prickly question of European trade policy: the European Commission, the European Community's (ec) executive body, must share authority over trade in services and intellectual property with other ec members. The ruling in mid-November was a blow to the …
Britain's ministry of defence is finding it difficult to sell off a few of the 3,400 sites it owns, to raise some urgently required funds. At least 8 sites are assumed to be radioactive from the use of radium-based luminous paint, and at least 1 is contaminated with the First …
