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 …
THE current "blood scandal" in France has taken a gory turn. Early this year, 4 eminent physicians were accused of treating French haemophiliacs (patients suffering from a blood disorder) with blood untested for hiv. All were convicted and 2 were imprisoned. But, the present situation is far more grim with …
Intel Corp, the leading US chipmaker, has joined hands with the Beijing-based Jitong Communications Co. Together, they plan to grab lucrative offers. An exhibition will open in Beijing of Intel's networking and personal conferencing products. "Intel and Jitong can help China's industry merge the power of the PC with the …
To encourage industrial units to provide accurate information in their environment audits, the government may soon amend the format of the environmental statement. The submission of the environment statement is mandatory for obtaining a no-objection certificate, which is issued by the State Pollution Control Board concerned. Organisations such as the …
Taiwan may finally let down its guard on betel nut imports. The country's Agriculture Ministry has plans to lift a decades-old import ban on what has come to be known as "Taiwanese chewing gum" in order to boost its chances of joining GATT. The market for betel nut has grown …
AFTER a gap of 4 uneventful years, the Greens have emerged as a strong force in the German parliament bagging 7.3 per cent of the vote. "We can remove the current government if necessary. I don't exclude its collapse during the next 4 years," said the jubilant co-leader of the …
The triumvirate of the American automobile industry, General Motors, Chrysler Corp and Ford Moors, have joined hands with the Clinton administration to develop a "safe, high-performance supercar" which will triple the modern car's efficiency. But some sceptical auto-watchers claims that the project is merely a ploy to hedge and stall …
The fate of the ratification of the World Trade Organisation (wto), the successor to gatt, seems to hang in the balance. The us government is still struggling to ratify the Uruguay Round by the January 1, 1995, deadline to facilitate the establishment of the wto, which will dramatically change the …
The car revolution has finally swept over China. The leaders of China's Communist Party have unveiled a plan to expand the automobile industry and boost private purchase of cars, once considered an aberration in the land of bicycles and handcarts. The production goal for vehicles by the end of this …
International commerce could well be dictated by robots, starting early this month, says a report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the International Federation of Robotics. The production of robots is likely to go up from last year's 610,000 to more than 830,000 by 1997 end, with …
SOCCER heroes may soon be displaced from their pedestals by a team of robots. In the first week of September, 22 teams of mechanical engineers paraded their star players before a spellbound audience in Osaka, Japan. The event in progress was the Techno-soccer Challenge, held for the second year in …
Power shortages could become routine in Sri Lanka by the year 2000, warns the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). To meet the growing demand from individual consumers and industries, CEB estimates that the installed capacity of 1370 MW will have to be augmented by 500600 MW. However, this addition to capacity …
The Brazilian government is facing flak from conservationists and opposition members for not buying land to create the national parks it had proposed. The delay in buying the land has affected 6 national parks that were created in 1989, and this is wrecking conservation efforts by hindering the government in …
EUROPE's burgeoning US $1 billion green fund industry -- half of which is in Britain -- is hard put to keep pace with the sweeping changes in industry. Chemical companies, traditionally the major polluters, are suddenly cleaning up their act and even helping others do so. On the other hand, …
On September 3, the Argentinian president Carlos Menem inaugurated the first of the 20 turbines of the 3,200MW Yacyreta dam, which he once called country's "monument to corruption". The Yacyreta project on the Parana river, the result of an agreement in 1958 between Argentina and Paraguay, was dogged by charges …
Once home to a rich variety of migratory birds from Russia, Siberia and Central Asia, Gamaghar Lake near Lahore, Pakistan, has been driven to the verge of extinction by an ill-planned irrigation system. Inadequate drainage systems had led to high levels of waterlogging and salinity in nearby agricultural areas. To …
Australia's new role as a protector of forests in the South Pacific is causing uneasiness in Malaysia. Trouble has been brewing since early August, when Australian prime minister Paul Keating accused Malaysian, South Korean and Indonesian logging companies of "ripping off" the island nations by paying too little for timber …
THE hexagonal shape of the bee honeycomb is often cited by engineers as the most economical use of 2-dimensional space. But now it appears the honeycomb design is ideal for saving energy, too. Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi have designed a honeycomb-type of insulation material …
Manchar, Asia's largest fresh water lake, is heading towards doom. Salinity levels in the lake, situated in Pakistan's Dadu district, have risen dangerously as saline water from the Salinity Control and Reclamation Project area continues to be drained into the lake. As a result, fish catches have declined sharply from …
The green credentials of Body Shop, a highly successful British cosmetics company with a chain of 1,100 outlets in 45 countries, took a beating with allegations of flimsy environmental standards. The controversy was sparked off when Franklin Research & Development Corporation, a US-based investment company, sold off its 50,000 Body …
ANXIOUS to curb air pollution, the US government is tightening the screws on automobile manufacturers. Air quality laws in California and Massachusetts now stipulate that 2 per cent of the total sales in the car market by 1988 should comprise "zero emission" vehicles, a requirement that only electric cars can …
