This Supreme Court order dated July 6, 2011 permitted Lafarge of France to resume limestone mining in Meghalaya to feed its $255-million cement plant in Bangladesh. This order was delivered by a bench comprising of the Hon’ble Chief Justice SH Kapadia, Justice Aftab Alam and Justice KS Radhakrishnan. According to …
Since the launch of the scheme last year, the government is buoyant on the renewable energy certificate (REC) market to increase the capacity of the sector. But given that the scheme is market-based, it hinges on the fragile commitments by states to meet their renewable energy purchase obligation (RPO) target. …
Project for Clean Energy Promotion in Male’ is a project which promotes rooftop based grid connected solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in Male’. This is project is a grant from Government of Japan. Under the first phase of the project, 390kWp of solar PV systems will be installed at the roof …
The Union Coal Ministry has warned companies which are sitting idle with coal and lignite blocks that have been allotted to them to start work early or face cancellation of their contracts. As many as seven companies have been warned for delaying mining which was having an adverse impact on …
New Delhi Taking forward its crusade against firms sitting idle on coal and lignite blocks allocated to them, the coal ministry has issued warnings to another seven firms, asking them to either develop the blocks or get them cancelled.
This new ADB report provides a comparative perspective on Asian parking policy trajectories by compiling a rich set of information on key aspects of parking supply policy in 14 Asian cities and by presenting results of parking behavior surveys from 12 of them. Most Asian cities are facing an acute …
This paper computes national carbon mitigation costs using two simple principles: Incremental costs for low-carbon energy investments are calculated using the cost of coal-fired power as the benchmark. All low-carbon energy sources are counted, because reducing carbon emissions cannot be separated from other concerns: reducing local air pollution from fossil-fuel …
A month before the chariot festival of Jagannath in Odisha’s Puri town, newspapers in the state published a government advertisement: “Donate phasi timber for chariot construction.” It promised a felicitation certificate to anyone donating timber for making three gigantic chariots. The appeal soon made headlines. With thousands of devotees set …
For years the World Health Organization (WHO) maintained that radiation from cell phones is generally safe. But on May 31, it changed its stand and announced that cell phones pose a possible cancer risk. A panel of 31 scientists at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a part …
A High Powered Committee set up by the Central government has suggested that allocation of natural resources should go to the highest bidder. This 13-member committee, headed by former finance secretary Ashok Chawla, submitted its recommendations in the first week of June. It was set up in January in the …
In April this year, Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra made history. One of its villages became the country’s first to win the right to sell and harvest bamboo. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh handed over transit pass books to residents of Mendha Lekha village, allowing them to exercise community forest rights over …
Nine-year-old Rani is unhappy. She has to stay away from her mother Janki Patel, who is taking part in a clinical trial at a centre 10 kilometres from her house at Bapu Nagar in Ahmedabad. “I do not like these trials. They take my parents away,” says Rani. In their …
To tighten regulations around clinical trials, a bill was drafted in 2002. Framed as per the guidelines of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), it was submitted to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2007 to be tabled in Parliament. But it has seen no progress ever since. …
What if a participant dies during a clinical trial? ICMR guidelines clearly mention that a participant must be insured for injuries and deaths. They bind ethics committees to review insurance documents before giving approval for the trial. Contract Research Organisations (CROs) and pharmaceutical companies say they ensure that participants are …
The biggest problem with the Rio conference has been its petty-mindedness. It has consistently refused to look into the basic processes that lead to environmental destruction. The world’s political leaders have shown great fear of the economic and political restructuring that such an approach would demand. The result is a …
WITH dwindling natural gas and oil reserves, the world is increasingly looking for alternative sources of energy. Industry people say shale gas is one promising option. It is the natural gas trapped in shale, a type of flaky sedimentary rock. It already accounts for 22 per cent of USA’s gas …
BACTERIA could be the new hero in the fight against the spread of malaria. Researchers at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US have demonstrated how two different bacteria can halt the growth of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria. It is estimated that the …
