Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
the government of India plans to issue a notification permitting the import of one million tonnes of soybean. The proposal has been cleared by the commerce industry and clearance is awaited from the agricultural ministry. The ministry of environment and forests ( mef ), which is responsible for the biosafety …
if the health ministry has its way, you may no longer be able to chew your favourite pan masala. As the health ministry ponders over a recommendation to ban the production and sale of all chewable tobacco products, the Rs 1400-crore " pan-zarda-gutka ' industry has gone into a tizzy. …
THE Spanish Conquistadors came to the New World in search of gold. They found tobacco instead, a cash crop which sold better than any other in history. It became a legal narcotic, the foundation of many a business empire. It also became a scourge let loose by the New World …
There is a standard rule amongst environmental officials that says that if you want to protect major species like the tiger or eco-systems, it is important to throw the people out of the protected area. But is this idea which originated in the West where nature is seen as wilderness, …
suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, 44, is the new environment minister of India. On assuming office, he told Down To Earth that the thrust of his government's environmental agenda would be on grassroot-level planning for the 21st century. He also said that he would like to introduce compulsory environmental education in schools …
Now that the country has a government, we need to ask ourselves the question: Are we going to get a government which will govern? Given that the elections were fought largely on the basis of politics related to casteism, communalism and regionalism, it is hard to imagine that all our …
A Committee has been set by the Supreme Court to study various aspects of urban solid water management in the country. The Court has directed the panel to submit its report by June 30 this year. Asim Burman, commissioner of Calcutta Municipal Corporation is heading the eight-member panel. It will …
The Union environment and forest ministry has issued a notification to constitute a special body to assess the loss to the forest wealth of the Madhya Pradesh (MP) due to the recent sal borer attacks, termed as the sal borer epidemic. The members of this body, apart from estimating the …
On his achievements as environment minister: I did not care for the fragility of the political system. Even in a caretaker government, I am doing what I can. I have constituted a committee to advise the ministry on how minerals can be utilised in this country. At present, individual companies …
The manner in which the Congress- i has used the forthcoming elections to curry favour with autorickshaw owners by organising them to oppose the bjp -led Delhi government's proposal to stop all commercial vehicles which are 15 years old or more from April 1, 1998 shows that India's politicians will …
Following the Supreme Court interim ban on transportation of forest produce from the north-east, Assam has lost around Rs 78 crore and Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 85 crore. For Assam, the revenue in territorial forest alone has come down from Rs 161,772,000 in 1995-96 to Rs 118,211,000 in 1996-97. In their …
What a beautiful smile P Chidambaram, India's youthful finance minister, had on his face announcing the final results of the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (vdis). Some Rs 10,000 crore, equivalent to about us $3 billion or about 5 per cent of the total annual aid flow from the North …
prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral's declaration at a five-hour conclave with industrialists that the government will come up with a new "industry-friendly forest policy within a month', came as big surprise to many. The Union minister for environment and forests Saifuddin Soz was busy talking about the government's
AUTOMATIC vending machines for condoms will be available at street corners throughout the country by December. The scheme has been finalised by the Union health ministry as part of its AIDS control programme. The ministry has asked for prototypes of the machine from indigenous manufacturers, which can accommodate different types …
at a recent national consultation, the Union ministry of environment and forest's ( mef) draft bill proposing a legislation to check the piracy of Indian medicinal plants and microbes, was criticised by several experts. The latter found the bill's formulation to be inappropriate. While the ministry's draft bill seeks to …
The polite language would be to say that the government of India is inconsistent in its positions on global environmental issues. The impolite language would be to say that the Indian government speaks with a forked tongue. In the last week of June, environment minister Saifuddin Soz was lambasting world …
On India's goal of achieving food security: We are confident of providing food security. Currently, the growth rate of foodgrain production is 2.8 per cent as against two per cent population growth. Current concerns centre more around the access to food; it is more of a socioeconomic problem rather than …
The Supreme Court (SC), on May 8 and 9, issued its latest order on the issue of the ban on non-forest, activities in the country. On December 12,1996, the apex court had imposed a blanket ban on the movement of timber within and from the northeast to any part of …
WHILE inaugurating the Sixth Tribal Literary Conference in Nashik recently, Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma called for the implementation of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution through-out tribal areas in the country. The Sixth Schedule, which at present is applicable only to the north- eastern states, talks of granting …
The national forest policies of 1952 and 1988 stated that one-third of India"s land should be under forest cover. But it is much less than that. Is your government taking any steps to change this? Forest policies must change. In recent years, the weaknesses of these policies have become obvious. …
