Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Are missing palm trees causing …
The testing of substances for adverse effects on humans and the environment needs a radical overhaul if we are to meet the challenges of ensuring health and safety.
Indian universities are likely to find themselves under a new oversight body, human resource development minister Kapil Sibal announced last week. Physicist Yash Pal led the committee that recommended setting up a six-member National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) to reform higher education. The commission would replace nearly …
With the advent of "World Wide Web", the Cyberspace has spread its tenatacles throughout the globe bringing in its wake highly controversial issues. Despite advantages of this matrix of immense utility, the Internet poses potential threat to the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) of incurring liability for no fault of theirs.
Across the world, attempts at regulating the processes and products of recombinant DNA technologies, including genetically modified organisms (GMOs) had their origins in the famous Asilomar Conference in 1975. In this conference, scientists who had been involved in developing these revolutionary technologies gathered to discuss the potential dangers of creating …
Ahmedabad: The state is in urgent need of an exclusive science and technology (S&T;) policy for further enhancement and development in science education, research and its popularisation, said RN Vakil, director of Centre for Environment Planning and Technology (CEPT) University and former president, Gujarat Science Academy (GSA) On Tuesday. Vakil …
MUMBAI: With Gujarat taking the lead in attracting industrial investments in recent times, chief minister Ashok Chavan on Wednesday said Maharashtra will soon come out with new policies on Information Technology (IT) and Bio-technology (BT) to promote these sectors in a big way. Chavan promised to be pro-active in drafting …
the Drugs Controller General of India (dcgi) is preparing guidelines for linking the drug regulatory authority and the Indian patent office. The system called
The politicization of us's Environmental Protection Agency (epa) has reached its acme. On April 10, the epa announced a new procedure to assess toxicity of chemicals. epa in its new avatar gives greater say to government agencies and corporate groups, and undermines scientists and public health professionals. The changes proposed …
In 1985, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) to establish "safe levels' for toxic chemicals. The levels set in IRIS are used as the scientific foundation for most EPA regulatory programmes, and for many state programmes, to establish health standards for air and water …
Controversial human-animal embryos can now be created for stem cell research. After eight months of public consultation, the uk Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has given the go-ahead to cytoplasmic hybrid research. The research involves cloning human genetic material inside the egg cell of rabbit or cow. This will result …
Indira Gandhi’s life (1917–1984) spanned much of the twentieth century. She was Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy for two spells that totaled fi fteen years. To this day, her environmental legacy remains one that divides critics from admirers. One sees it as a defense against ecological impoverishment, especially …
The National Natural Science Foundation of China has blacklisted 13 academicians for fraud, according to the daily Xinhua. This is the institute's fourth round of "naming and shaming' of scholarly fraudsters since 2005. The fraudulent practices included plagiarism, fabricating data, falsifying signatures and violating application procedures and other rules to …
On April 11, 2007, the us Senate voted to lift a key restriction by us president George W Bush on the federal funding of stem-cell research. Ignoring Bush's threat of a second veto, the Democrat-controlled Senate passed the Stem Cell Enhancement Act of 2007. But it failed to get the …
the European Union (eu) has come up with new funds to promote the best ideas in science and technology. The first ever pan-European research body, the European Research Council, will dole out cash regardless of location or institution within eu. It aims for excellence and to "bring the Nobel prizes …
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has said that the state government was developing the third phase of Genome Valley in Hyderabad over an area of 120 hectares. A biotech incubation centre would be set up and be supported with technical inputs from the Indian Institute of Chemical …
The media is often accused of hyping research to attract interest. But many distortions and misunderstandings arise because scientists themselves fail to communicate results in a meaningful way. Now a new set of guidelines designed to help scientists communicate effectively with the media has been drawn up. The guidelines were …
us President George W Bush recently signed a new national space policy, which claims that the nation has the right to deny access to space to anyone hostile to its national interests. "The us will preserve its rights, capabilities and freedom of action in space... and deny, if necessary, adversaries …
The eu has agreed in a compromise that its six-year us $65 billion budget for scientific research will fund embryonic human stem-cell research, so long as it does not involve destruction of embryos. The decision avoided an all-out ban on embryonic research, for which some countries had been pushing. The …
