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. …
River Capacity Existing class Desired class Possible source of pollution Sabarmati i) Ahmedabad city to Sabarmati Ashram ii) Sabarmati Ashram to Vautha E E B D Domestic and industrial waste from Ahmedabad Sutlej i) Downstream Ludhiana to Harike ii) Downstream of Nangal Partly D Partly E E C C Industrial …
THE MINISTRY of Environment and Forests has asked the Planning Commission to earmark Rs 250 crore during the eighth five-year plan as the centre's share in the proposed national river action plan (NRAP) -- a programme to clean up polluted stretches of 19 rivers -- in which states will bear …
Researchers at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ISRISAT) in Hyderabad find Indian farmers obtain lower groundnut yields than African farmers, due to pest damage. Indian farmers spray their crops at least seven times in a season, making it impossible for the prey species to recolonise the …
THE NATIONAL Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), a giant "freezer" in New Delhi to store plant genes, is implementing a Rs 64.8-crore expansion project that will increase its storage capacity four-fold -- from 154,964 varieties at present to 600,000 varieties. The expansion, with partial assistance of about Rs 40 …
OXFORD researchers have found children are more likely to inherit asthma and hay fever from mothers than fathers. The gene responsible, found on chromosome 11, is only active when inherited from the mother. An international team of scientists, led by Bill Cook and Julian Hopkins, speculates that maternal inheritance of …
Lichens as pollution monitors Pollution Zone I Pollution Zone II Pollution Zone II Pollution Zone II Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Beacidia convexula Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Pyrenula nitida Graphis scripta Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Pyrenula nitida Graphis scripta Lecanactis premnea Arthania antillarum Catilaria indica Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Pyrenula nitida …
THE GANGA'S alarming pollution level has inspired both government and non-governmental involvement in clean-up work. While the Union government has created an exhaustive structure to cleanse the river, some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have also been active, though on a smaller scale, in arousing popular consciousness and analysing official clean-up measures. …
Seed companies are beating a path to the office of a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, entranced by the commercial prospects of his discovery of a single gene that could greatly improve the quality of proteins in plants. In a major breakthrough, Asis Datta, professor of molecular …
IN MANY ways, the Ganga Action Programme is a very ambitious scheme. It aims to clean up one of the world"s longest rivers -- using sophisticated and expensive technologies. But the project does not sufficiently recognise that the Ganga flows through one of the poorest and most densely populated regions …
THE TITLE promises a holistic analysis of the multi-faceted issue of child labour, but the book loses credibility because it concentrates on child labour's link with fertility. The studies relate largely to rural India and the subcontinent. Fertility-based explanations of child labour miss the crux of the problem: poverty of …
I WAS lucky that my childhood memories and later my life as a civil servant gave me insights into demographic behaviour. My boyhood recollection of an evening of listening to my father and his friends soon after the 1931 census results were published, left an abiding impression of the reasons …
THINGS could not have turned out more badly in the fight over the fate of the wastelands board. Last fortnight's cabinet notification lays to rest the uncertainty over where the new minister for wasteland will sit. The notification certainly also does another thing: It dug a grave for the entire …
CONVENTIONAL anthropological fieldwork, common sense and academic adventure divorced from the contemporary trends in anthropological research are the mix in this book, but without rigorous data on the "whole" of Muslim identity. Conveying its message in bits and pieces, it is neither an insider's view nor an outsider's interpretation of …
TRAVELLING north through the Brahmaputra valley, you come to a diversion to Tejpur and a three-km bridge, the second spanning the river. On the north bank, a national highway goes all the way to North Khimpur. You pass by tea gardens standing in disciplined rows and you are overwhelmed by …
Susana Devalle's monograph, with culture and protest in Jharkhand as the backdrop and not the main focus, is a welcome departure from run-of-the-mill accounts of ethnic movements. Her attempt to conceptualise ethnicity is a rough journey, full of pitfalls, not all of which she escapes. In the realm of ideas …
BETWEEN the radical and the official view of socio-economic developments, there is a middle ground of development ideology that does not readily find a voice on television. Catalysts for Change is one such series, made by the Centre for the Development of Instructional Technology (CENDIT). It was intended for Doordarshan, …
THE KATHMANDU valley, for decades the showpiece of Nepal, is literally gasping for breath in a highly polluted environment. Long-time residents are concerned that the host of problems plaguing the valley will also keep tourists away, thereby losing an estimated US $70 million in tourism-related earnings. Overpopulation is the popular …
FLIP-CHART presentations, rock concerts and relaxed Sunday-morning conversations at a Madras street corner or over a cup of tea on the highway are some of the strategies being used by concerned volunteers in Tamil Nadu to educate high-risk groups on the steps they must take to avoid contracting AIDS. The …
WEAVERS of Tibetan carpets in Nepal have been named the primary polluter of the Kathmandu valley. In a May notification, the government demanded that it set in place the mandatory pollution control measures or pay a fine of NRs 50,000 (IRs 30,300) or face closure or both. Started as a …
UNTIL the other day, the Oriya hamlet of Siandi was held out as a shining example of progress amidst decline and of community cooperation amidst strife. But all this is history -- and today, everything that made this tiny village on the Chilika lake a cut above the rest seems …
