The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
The drug controller of India is considering banning anti- diarrheal drugs for children because they are increasingly replacing oral rehydration solutions -- the first-line treatment for replenishing lost water and salts in the body. The ban will be part of a plan to ban "irrational" combinations, which is likely to …
BRITAIN'S environment secretary John Gummer is determined to limit the development of super stores, to protect declining town centres. Gummer's department issued guidelines that strengthen the position of local authorities resisting applications for super stores. The revised notes for local authority planners place greater emphasis on the need to maintain …
Multinational pharmaceutical companies Hoechst and Gist Brocades (GB) have locked horns, through their Indian representatives Ranbaxy and Max India, over a proposed joint venture with the public sector company, Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd (HAL), on penicillin-G, which is widely used for making semi-synthetic penicillin (SSP) intermediates. GB is the world leader …
The proposed National Environment Tribunal bill has sparked off a debate in legal, environmental and industrial circles. The bill, expected to be tabled by the government in the forthcoming winter session of Parliament, proposes a national tribunal devoted to environmental matters and the settlement of compensation for accidents. It has, …
ONE EXPECTS doctors to refrain from overdosing the patient. But do they really do that? Apparently not, as is evidenced by experiences in some European countries such as France and Italy. The governments of these nations are spending twice as much on medicines per capita than others without any significant …
IT IS THE season of the kerempt or "big rains", and the sky is often overcast. Four hours south of Addis Ababa, with the rain turning the roads into swamps, it is a different world. The sense of helplessness, the sense of waiting, the dependence on nature -- it's there …
Environmental issues in India are contested by different social groups, including the state. Since the law vests and divests contesting groups with rights and resources, it has itself become a subject of contest. Wildlife enthusiasts demand legislations to make sanctuaries inviolate from human interference, while others demand laws protecting the …
INDIA'S interest in petroleum has grown rapidly. Understandably so, because the investments made are large and the returns fair, and could be even more attractive if we priced it properly. But, despite the growing interest in the mechanics of petroleum, it is virtually impossible to find a book that is …
Indira Gandhi would have been happy had she known that environment, in which she took an active interest, has now become a central concern of governments the world over. Her deep understanding and involvement in environmental concerns was reflected in her ideas and policies, which provided guidelines not only for …
RAJPURA, a village adjacent to the Shiv Shankar Chemical Industries Pvt Ltd, a liquor factory in Banka district's Jagadishpur block, is almost ruined. Effluents from the factory have rendered Rajpura's agricultural land, the two drinking water wells and the shallow handpumps useless and a perpetual stench pervades the village. This …
A CHILD at a blind school in the Okhla industrial area of Delhi feels his way around the school's grounds during recess, one hand clutching a stick and the other, a glass of milk shake. A curious combination, but the mystery is soon solved. The milk shake comes from the …
ENVIRONMENT protection need not be a dirty word in business. In fact, instead of being considered a financial loss, it can be turned into a profit making proposition. Industries are beginning to realise that "waste minimisation" can not only help them save money by saving raw material and fuel, but …
EVEN AS the threat to global biodiversity and the atmosphere increases, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has frozen all on-going projects and postponed decisions pertaining to others till early November, when the Independent Evaluation Committee will submit its final report. The freeze was prompted by an interim report, which suggests …
ECOLOGISTS have opposed the proposed 31-km Colombo-Katunayake expressway, writes Mallika Wanigasundara in a Panos report. They claim it will dislocate approximately 2,500 families, affect the livelihood of 2,000 fisherfolk and destroy about 35 ha of biologically rich marshland. The environmentalists contend the flood problem will be aggravated as the expressway …
In the wake of the Latur earthquake, to make sure it doesn't get caught on the wrong foot once again, the Central government plans to set up a network of seismic stations. The Rs 100 crore technology mission will create a databank by establishing seismic observatories and cyclone warning centres, …
The dreaded guinea worm disease will be eradicated in India by 1995, claims UNICEF. UNICEF country representative for India Jon Eliot Rhode told newspersons the number of guinea worm cases have reduced drastically over the past decade. Figures provided by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), the nodal agency …
NEARLY 37 million people in the United States have no health insurance at all. Meanwhile, the money spent on health care has been rising steadily till last year, it touched $800 billion -- more than 14 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. But all that will be a …
A US APPEALS court has ruled that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) can be forwarded to Congress without an environmental impact statement, even as a power plant near the border fuelled a row about environmental damage. The US court agreed with the Clinton administration that private groups could …
* PATENT wars are heating up. British drug manufacturer Glaxo has won one patents case against a Canadian manufacturer, but faces a second against another. Both claim Glaxo's products -- stable and unstable forms of Zantac -- are not different enough to justify different patents. Zantac is the world's best-selling …
Shifting cultivation has been criticised as unscientific and blamed for the environmental problems in the hills. Do you agree? On the contrary, shifting agriculture is a fine example of how a production system can be adapted to an ecological niche. Very often shifting cultivation is talked about as a single …
