Status report on behalf of MCD in the matter of news item titled "Greater Kailash lesser comfort life amid foul air mosquitoes" appearing in the Times of India dated 22/04/2024. In the original application, registered suo motu, the tribunal is examining the issue of emitting intolerable stench from a drain …
Agricultural price policy has come under serious attack recently for recommending support prices higher than what the costs of production warrant, supposedly leading to a distortion of the market, and, therefore, to food deprivation. With an in-depth analysis of costs and returns in rice and wheat, which are the most …
Despite the Union Carbide Corporation being criminally liable for the Bhopal catastrophe, the government, though being the sole representative of the victims, colluded with the UCC and compromised the interests of the affected people. The UCC and its Indian subsidiary, the Union of India and the state of Madhya Pradesh …
The Saakshar Bharat Mission aims at 80% adult literacy and is to be implemented by gram panchayats. However, not only are these local bodies already heavily burdened with a multitude of roles and responsibilities, it is also a fallacy to presume that their members are adult literacy experts. While adult …
Between 1998 and 2008, the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife considered 244 cases for diversion of protected areas. It approved diversion covering 2.88% of the area proposed, while rejecting a shift in a smaller area (0.87%). The rest of the area proposed for diversion still awaits a …
Labelling of genetically modified foods is a contentious issue and internationally there is sharp division on whether such labels ought to be mandatory. This debate has reached India where the government has proposed mandatory labels. Mandatory labelling aims to provide greater information and correspondingly more informed consumer choice. However, even …
Economic policy since Independence has provided various benefits to small enterprises to ensure employment to workers who did not find work in the organised sector. These benefits provided incentives to small entrepreneurs to formally register their enterprises. This paper examines the impact of liberalisation
The chronicle of Bhopal in the courts is of a case doomed to failure. In step after step from that fateful night of 2 December 1984 onwards, the government, legal luminaries and, even on occasion, the Supreme Court of India failed the victims of Bhopal, and one could even say …
Dharavi in Mumbai exemplifies what is most ugly and what is most inspiring about slum life in a city. How should it be redeveloped to remove the ugliness and yet retain its community spirit, enterprise, ambitions and hope? Current plans are focused on profit-making, by developers and government, with the …
Anxiously aiting outside the court of the chief judicial magistrate Mohan M Tiwari in Bhopal on 7 June, 36-year old Raghu Jaidev and many other victims of the Bhopal catastrophe were crestfallen, some of them,outraged,upon hearing the outcome of the trial that had dragged on for almost two decades. (Editorial)
In this paper, an attempt is made to understand various dimensions of the relationship between the electricity system and politics in colonial Madras presidency between 1900 and 1947. The colonial government, which introduced new technological systems such as electricity, had its own economic and political priorities. These interests came in …
In the four and a half years of its existence the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector submitted nine reports exploring a variety of conditions in India
Much of the problems associated with the application of technology can be traced to the absence of any social science input into the foundation or structuring of science research in our contemporary world. Civil society interventions are almost invariably seen as irritants to science, while Weberian experts are expected to …
The government of Maharashtra is offering subsidies for liquor production from foodgrains. This policy will turn jowar into a cash crop and divert huge quantities of foodgrains to alcohol production, creating scarcity and causing food inflation. Moreover, Right to Information documents have revealed the extent to which the claims made …
