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. …
ON NEW Year's Eve, 1991, newspersons covering the 2-week Sangharsh Yatra from Madhya Pradesh to Gujarat against the Sardar Sarovar project (SSP) witnessed an ominous phenomenon: an area under prohibitory orders changing its contours like an amoeba. The Gujarat police stopped the yatra at the interstate border in Ferkuva village, …
I AM happy that a large number of leading non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are meeting for a consultation with key development ministries. I had addressed a gathering of NGOs in December, 1991, where I had offered to withdraw the government from certain areas altogether, provided the NGOs take over the responsibility …
AT THEIR most convivial, Indian NGOs tend to keep a wide no-person's-land between themselves and the government. So when Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao called for voluntary organisations to cooperate with the government in order to eradicate poverty, they considered the possibility with lips pursed in doubt. They made …
THE Prime Minister, P V, Narasimha Rao, took a commendable step by revoking the patent granted to the US company, Agracetus, in 1991. Agracetus was awarded the patent for its transgenic cotton by the Indian Patent Office even though the Patent Act specifically forbids the Patenting of "investing process related …
The Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) -- a farmer's organisation -- has taken the lead in proposing an alternative to the Union government's draft bill on protection of plant varieties, which is based on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations. In February, representatives of six groups, including …
How does it feel to be told that if only your car had seat belts fitted, your 26-year-old son and 22-year-old daughter-in-law would be alive today? What would you do if you were told this? Would you bow down in acceptance before the Hindu priest when he said that it …
THE UNION government has sanctioned a Rs 10.16 crore plan for the popularisation of biopesticides. This comes on the heels of a large outlay for organic farming announced in the present five-year plan. The project, proposed by the department of biotechnology (DBT) and approved on January 24, envisages the setting …
THOUGH Indian farmers have practised sustainable farming for generations, the Union government has only now awakened to the need to promote ecofriendly, organic farming. In early January, the Union government announced an outlay of Rs 26 crore for organic farming during the remaining years of the eighth five-year plan (1992-97). …
Union environment minister Kamal Nath will release 1,500 ha of forest land in Maharashtra's Dhule district for oustees of the Saradar Sarovar Project. This follows a directive issued by Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao after a meeting in January with the chief ministers of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya pradesh, …
ESTIMATES of air pollution in Delhi caused by various sources vary, except in the case of vehicles. K P Nyati of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), says about 70 per cent of the air pollution is caused by vehicles, about 20 per cent by power plants and the rest …
WHEN UNION environment minister Kamal Nath announced he would introduce in the budget session of Parliament in February comprehensive legislation for biodiversity conservation, many people were pleasantly and otherwise surprised. Officials of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) were among those taken unaware by the minister"s announcement on …
In the first week of December, the Prime Minister's office gave the go-ahead for the establishment of the National Drug Authority (NDA) to oversee the formulation and supply of medicines in the country. However, the scope of the NDA has been reduced drastically from what was envisioned when the body …
Officials in the department of science and technology (DST) have woken up to the necessity of low-cost housing. The department has set rolling a project to develop low-cost houses that are adapted to agro-climatic conditions and develop local building materials and skills of local artisans by linking them to appropriate …
Two amendments to the National Environment Tribunal Bill recommended by the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology and environment and forests, are likely to be tabled during the winter session of parliament. Though these will make the proposed tribunal slightly more powerful, it will not give it the teeth …
THE UNION transport ministry maintains it is committed to restricting vehicular pollution. However, a notification on automobile emission levels issued by the government in the first week of November, dilutes standards both in overall terms and in almost every vehicle category. For instance, the limit for carbon monoxide emissions by …
The Union agriculture ministry's plan to draw up a national fisheries policy for the integrated development of fishing in India has drawn flak from organisations representing coastal fisherfolk in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat. The fisherfolk have objected strongly to the Union government's policy of supporting …
The environment ministers of Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma and India are likely to meet soon to work out a clean-up programme for the Himalaya. The idea for the 'Save Himalaya' meet was mooted by Edmund Hillary, the first person to conquer Mount Everest, and M S Kohli, chairperson …
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that do not help in the government's family planning programmes may get debarred from receiving government funds. Since the beginning of October, the government has made it mandatory for NGOs that draw government funds to promote family planning. The decision came in the wake of an unequivocal …
The Union ministry of non-conventional energy sources (MNES) plans to increase exploitation of the country's draught animal power (DAP) potential. A report prepared by an MNES committee, in consultation with the Bangalore-based Centre for Appropriate Rural Transportation and Management (CARTMAN), suggests the government increases its annual spending on technology development …
LESS THAN a week after Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar put off the much publicised jal-samarpan (death-by-drowning) protest against the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), she attended the first round of talks with a five-member committee established by the Union government to review the project. Prior to the meeting, there …
