The report presents a mixed picture. Over the past 25 years, there have been notable improvements in child well-being in the group of countries examined in this report: steady decline in child mortality, overall reduction in adolescent suicide and increase in school completion rates. But the last five years have …
The prestigious Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore, US , has admitted that one of its researchers used patients at the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Kerala as human guinea pigs to test experimental cancer drugs. The internal investigation conducted by the varsity has found that its faculty member carried …
Shimoga, a small city in Karnataka celebrated car free day on October 6, 2001. This is the first instance that any Indian city has celebrated car free day, which has been taken up as an initiative in several European cities to reduce car use and thus reduce vehicular air pollution …
few realise that behind the colourful contemporary folk art of Mithila paintings is a powerful message of conservation and an indication of the region's rich biodiversity. Traditionally done in the Madhubani region of north Bihar, the paintings were originally made by women as
At least 20 endangered sarus cranes were recently killed and eaten by villagers of the Banteay Meanchey province of Cambodia. "The birds ate many rice plants and, therefore, the villagers hunted them,' said Thach Khorn, the provincial governor. Sun Hean, a wildlife department official, opines that such incidences are the …
To put it in a nutshell, the factors that have contributed to the lack of development of organic market in India include low awareness about the perils of chemically farmed products, high prices of organic produce, lack of consumer confidence in organic food standards and their erratic supply. Smritee Singh, …
The government's interventions have focused on promoting certified organic production, missing out the challenge of using the organic route to reward traditional, marginal farmers. This misplaced priority seems to be changing. A master plan for the production of organic coffee is almost ready. Formulated by the coffee board, the plan …
A national Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning, India's first facility to test for lead poisoning, has come up in Bangalore. The St John's National Academy of Health Sciences and The George Foundation (tgf) of Bangalore have jointly set up the centre. The facility would provide simple, accurate and inexpensive tests …
the world's six leading publishers of medical journals have agreed to give researchers in developing countries online access to their publications free of cost or at greatly reduced prices. The agreement covers about 1,000 of the world's top 1,240 medical journals. The World Health Organisation ( who ) had urged …
The recent decision of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to ban animal dissection has boosted the morale of animal lovers on one hand, and on the other has created a flutter in the science fraternity. After several hearings, and a favourable resolution from the Committee for the Purpose of …
Titanic sank not because it hit the iceberg, the reason for its sinking lies in its inability to take a turn on time'. These words are aptly used by Mahesh Bhat, the noted filmmaker, to describe the apathy of the government through his documentary Bearing the Brunt. The documentary was …
located at altitudes of 4,000-5,000 metres, the wetlands in the Changtang area of eastern Ladakh attract a large variety of wildlife as well as humans with their livestock. This area covering thousand of square kilometres lies within the boundaries of the Changtang Wilderness Area or the proposed High Altitude Cold …
The residents of Vieques, a Puerto Rican island, have achieved a landmark victory in a long-standing dispute about the us navy's activities on their island. The us navy uses Vieques to provide training to battle groups. Donald H Rumsfeld, the us defence secretary, recently ordered the navy to call off …
The vast economic potential of biotechnology in India has created some interesting alliances. At the Indian Science Congress held recently in New Delhi, the Confederation of Indian Industry (cii), the Union government's department of biotechnology (dbt), and a delegation of lawyers from the us joined hands to convince the public …
One small village in Maharashtra is the teaching ground for five state governments today. Anna Saheb Hazare is the benevolent teacher. He teaches common sense. Rules of simple and sustainable living that the nation has learned to forget. Practices that have made Ralegan Siddhi an example for the numerous developmental …
of late , there has been a great deal of activity connected with aids awareness and control. Yet, it seems that all sponsored, funded and media-hyped activities do not translate into specific guidelines or mandatory protocols when a seropositive hiv case is identified. Identification of such a case takes place …
The United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) human development report for 2000 has for the first time linked human rights to human development, particularly in the poverty eradication sector. "Human rights is not, as has sometimes been argued, a reward of development. Rather they are critical to achieving it," says Mark …
Here is a success story. May every Keralite feel proud. Kerala is the most literate state in India, the first where population levels stabilised and now they have even successfully dealt with decentralised planning. But the god's haven't been fair to the state in the past few decades. The state …
