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 …
on a radio programme aired on a popular international station, representatives of the plant biotechnology industry likened the fear for genetically modified organisms (gmos) to the initial fear of vaccinations. Both, they claimed, are equally unfounded and come in the way of benefits to humankind. Just as vaccinations put an …
About 830 million people around the world have not got sufficient food to eat because of natural disasters, armed conflicts and poverty, says the United Nations World Food Programme. "From generation to generation, people do not have enough food to eat,' said Catherine Bertini, the agency's executive director. The worst-hit …
"In the virtual world, we virtually promise everything but deliver virtually nothing." this caption from one of the cartoons exhibited at the Indian Science Congress 2001 sums up the outcome of the massive jamboree, held in Delhi from January 3 to 7. The prime minister promised food for all, the …
"Children in India remain malnourished while foodgrains rot in our granaries. The key to this is proper management of our granaries.' V Ramalingaswami National Research Professor "There's a big gap between scientific research and application. We have crude facts of science, locked up in laboratories and research institutes, but we …
The session raised a whole range of problems. When it came to discussing solutions, time ran out. Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical Garden in the us made some relevant observa-tions: "Food security has increased, but many people in the world still go hungry.' He said extinction rate of species …
For a large part of the year anybody who was anybody in India talked about match fixing in cricket. When Parliament was in session there was a hue and cry over the Ayodhya issue but hardly a whisper in the corridors of power over drought. Ayodhya and match fixing became …
This study looks at the linkages between dams and climate change. It analyses the climate change legal regime as represented by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol and attempts to highlight the relevance of its provisions, decisions and processes to the planning, appraisal, design, construction, …
finally one can see some action. A lot has been said about the falling agricultural productivity in the Indo-Gangetic Plains ( igp). An inititative is on to check the decline in yields of rice and wheat in the area. 12 million hectares of igp includes parts of Bangladesh, India, Nepal …
In 1990, senior government officials gathered at Paro to draft broad parameters for the country’s development agenda. The conclusion was the “Paro Resolution on Environment and Sustainable Development”, a statement that redefined sustainability in the Bhutanese context. It read as, “The capacity and the political will to effectively address today’s …
With modernisation has come the pressure on the forests. Though almost three-fourths of the country is still covered by dense foliage, the demands from a growing population can put unprecedented demands on them. Be it for construction, fuelwood consumption, infrastructure development, it cannot be underestimated. At the same time, 60 …
T he challenges that Bhutan is faced with are indeed daring, but rather than taking corrective measures, one cannot deny the fact that the government is taking proactive steps to mitigate the evils of development. For instance, air pollution. Though not of the proportion Indian metros like New Delhi are …
On the road to destiny The tradition-bound Himalayan kingdom readies itself to brace modernism In 1958, when the then Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, went to Bhutan on a state visit, the only way he could reach the capital Thimpu was over land. He demanded to be met at the …
The international community's goal to reduce half of the world's food availability problem by 2015 will not be achieved as per schedule, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). "Progress towards meeting the 1996 World Food Summit's target has been so far very slow, and at the current pace …
Gian kaur, 50, is a breast cancer patient. But in her village her ailment does not make her unique or get her visitors to check on her health. Almost every house in her village Giana in Bhatinda district has an ailing patient to tend to. Cancer or less fatal diseases …
A few months, India was besieged by a drought. But the drought did not lead to a famine. A comfortable grain reserve of 26 million tonnes -11 million tonnes more than would be required in a normal year to stave of the famine. But this may be the last time …
Undoubtedly, GR made Punjab one of the richest states in India in terms of per capita income. From Rs 2,674 in 1980-81, the per capita income at current prices rose to Rs 19,770 in 1997-98. Compared to Punjab, Tamil Nadu's per capita income was only Rs 12,989, while that of …
It's been 50 years since politicians have been mouthing the slogan: Jai jawan, jai kisan (Long live soldiers, long live farmers). Now it has started to sound like a raucous chant, at least to the farmers struggling to survive. They till the soil harder, increase their spending to replenish their …
With the spate of political support that the concept of rainwater harvesting has received in recent weeks from Central ministers and state chief ministers, the attack from pro-dam lobbies had to come. The government of Gujarat appears to be especially miffed as it had probably hoped that this drought would …
AS FAR AS the eye can see, it is a mass of horns in a desiccated, semi-arid landscape. The horns emerge sideways from the head, turn up, and then arch back at the tips, as if swept back by the wind. Kankrej, native to northern Gujarat, is quite a regal-looking …
