New Delhi With the uncertainty over assured coal supply from domestic sources rising, private power companies have started pushing for changes in existing tariff bidding guidelines so that they can pass on any increase in fuel costs to electricity buyers. Currently, developers cannot pass on any increase in coal prices …
Health ministry wants allocation to be doubled; Planning panel expected to meet on June 22 India will need Rs 15,000-17,000 crore in four to five years for implementing the Food Safety & Standards Rules, 2011, according to estimates by the health ministry. The Planning Commission is expected to take a …
Mahendra Singh Tikait, a small-time farmer from western Uttar Pradesh’s Jat belt who rose to become a formidable leader in his region and symbolised farmer power for about a decade, then got reduced to irrelevance due to a lack of political tact and a parochial worldview, died on May 15 …
People in the villages around Ratlam are paying a heavy price for living near the industrial town in Madhya Pradesh. Their groundwater has been polluted by over 23,500 tonnes of hazardous waste dumped at two factory premises and other sites in Ratlam. The quantity of toxic waste lying at the …
In what could set a precedent for forest rights struggles, six villages in Madhya Pradesh have stalled a government plan to notify their forest as wildlife sanctuary. Gram sabhas of these villages have passed resolutions against the proposed Katthiwada wildlife sanctuary in Alirajpur district. While the government is yet to …
Energy efficiency is often called the low hanging fruit of climate change. Each unit of electricity saved is considered a unit less generated, which means less greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Under the 11th Five Year Plan, programmes promoting energy efficiency aim to save five per cent of energy …
The violence in Bhatta-Parsaul villages is a reminder of smaller clashes in western Uttar Pradesh since 2007 over land acquisition. In August 2010, Tappal block in Aligarh saw similar protests, leading to a clash between farmers and the police. The compensation given to these farmers against land acquired for the …
JUST after the Big Bang, about 14 billion years ago, the universe was packed with equal amounts of matter and antimatter. Antimatter contains the same set of subatomic particles as matter but with opposite charges. Protons have antiprotons; neutrons, antineutrons; and electrons, antielectrons. When the two come in contact, they …
AN animal’s ability to acclimatise to urban surroundings is believed to depend on its brain size. Evolutionary biologists have for the first time provided evidence of it. Alexei A Maklakov and his team from Evolutionary Biology Center, Uppsala University, Sweden, have found that relative brain size in birds is a …
A LAB study shows global warming that increases sea-surface temperatures would make cold-blooded creatures of the sea vulnerable. A slight increase in temperature may be conducive to growth. Above a certain temperature threshold, the metabolic demands of tissues such as supply of oxygen progressively limit the energy available for growth …
STEM rust that ruined wheat crops in several Asian countries last year is still invincible. Scientists say it has established itself on nearly all resistant wheat varieties developed in the last 50 years. There is no way to control this highly adaptive pathogen, dubbed Ug99. What makes the fungus elusive …
PLATINUM is a precious metal used as a catalyst in fuel cells. But the high cost of platinum restricts fuel cells’ contribution to global energy solution. Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a catalyst made of cheap and easily available materials like polyanaline …
DROUGHT is the worst enemy of crops like chickpea which requires moderate rainfall for growth. Studies till date have focused on how dehydration changes expression of genes that code for proteins vital for the plant’s survival. But there is a dearth of studies that look at the activity of proteins …
It’s afternoon and wisps of clouds have already enveloped the Sora Muni shrine that keeps watch over Sri Lanka’s Horton Plains massif. Here, Tamil workers of the Thotulagalla tea estate in Haputale offer a sacrificial goat to the deity following the annual pruning of tea bushes. It is ironic to …
There is something paradoxical about the current thinking on forests, the theme of this year’s World Environment Day. They are dispensable in the pursuit of economic growth. But with climate change becoming common knowledge, there is also a recognition of the role of forests in checking global warming. These divergent …
The links between digital technologies and politics, especially in the light of the recent West Asian-North African uprisings, have been well-established. But there is a pervasive belief that the technologies of computing, in themselves, are apolitical. There are two warring groups when it comes to debates around political participation and …
About a year ago, this magazine carried a story on how lethal toys could be. I was struck by a paragraph that described how children could be ingesting chemicals when chewing a toy meant for teething children. That scary feeling came back while reading What’s gotten into us? Staying healthy …
Factories making Apple iPads and iPhones in China are forcing staff to sign pledges not to commit suicide, an investigation by two international NGOs, Centre for Research on Multinational Companies and Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbe-haviour, revealed. At least 14 workers at Foxconn factories in China have killed themselves …
It took the keen eye of a stamp collector to spot the mistake. A United States Postal Service stamp bearing a picture of New York’s iconic Statue of Liberty was in fact a photo of a replica statue at a Las Vegas casino. The stamp, which shows a low-angled close-up …
