Famous bird-watcher Bikram Grewal not only relishes the sport but also publishes the fruits of his explorations to produce treaures of information on the flying creatures. He talks to Bindu Shajan Perappadan about the conservation scenario of birds in India.
With the Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear deal hanging in the balance, the government is framing a policy for importing power from neighbouring countries including Pakistan to overcome the peaking shortage, say highly placed sources. Work on the policy is being expedited. For, although India considers Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar a natural market for hydroelectricity, competition could be round the corner. Both Nepal and Bhutan have started inviting foreign participation in the power sector.
The police tried to stop anguished relatives from streaming into one of the worst affected areas of China's massive earthquake on Sunday, as another strong aftershock hit the area and the death toll rose to nearly 32,500. Hundreds of aftershocks have rattled Sichuan province following last Monday's devastating 7.9 magnitude quake, and officials are concerned the tremors could bring down more unstable buildings and rupture already leaky dams. Six days after the main quake hit, the overall death toll stands at nearly 32,500, state news agency Xinhua reported, with a further 220,000 injured.
A Sin hala scholar's remark that Mahendra, son of Emperor Asoka, reached the island nation by land from South India has further substantiated the existence of Ram Sethu, the controversial structure in the Indian Ocean.
The Asian Development Bank has embarked upon an ambitious plan to work out long-term strategy with the help of international experts to control the perennial problem of flood in Assam. The Bank which will fund and execute project, has identified four vulnerable areas of the state for its first-phase of work. These are Palas bari in Kamrup district, Kaziranga, Dibrugarh town and Matmora in worst flood-hit Dhemaji district.
The most important safety valve as far as food supply is concerned is the short production cycle. That rising food prices are a global phenomenon is well-known. Perhaps not as salient are the differences in the intensity of food inflation across the world. Focusing on Asia, while all countries have seen significant surges in the prices of all major food items, the variation in the rate of price increases is quite striking. Apart from agricultural policy and food security in the region, this has implications for the immediate macroeconomic scenario.
Recycling is an effective way of creating treasure out of waste at a fraction of the energy used in producing primary metals from minerals. Now that both ferrous and non-ferrous metals are ruling at historically high prices, the outlook for scrap recovery and metal production through the secondary route of melting of scrap has never been this good. Steel scrap deals are made at rates of over $600 a tonne.
Domestic drug majors and public health activists have accused research-based multinational drug companies of not providing clear information about the type or use of the potential new medicines in patent applications. The practice of using complex chemicals, or molecular formulae, in place of clear indicators as patent titles is an attempt to hide the identity of the actual molecule, they said.
The World Bank is likely to sanction a reform-linked loan of Rs 16,000 crore to the UP government. The loan, called "UP Development Policy Loan", is in an advanced stage of negotiation and likely to be credited to UP in the current fiscal. The loan will help the state government retire costly old debt, which will reduce the annual interest burden by Rs 700 crore.
The Union health ministry will set up a vaccine manufacturing unit with World Health Organisation's licence and a medical park at Chengalpattu, 30 km from Chennai, at an investment of Rs 300 crore to Rs 500 crore. Speaking to reporters in Chennai on Saturday, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said the upcoming vaccine unit and the medical park, along with a medicity and research and development (R&D) centre, would centralise the vaccine production in the country.
Japan will offer $10 billion over the next five years to help African nations tackle climate change, government sources said Sunday. The plan will be announced by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in his speech at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, to be held in Yokohama on May 28, the sources said.
Even as the current negotiations in the Doha Round of world trade talks on agriculture have entered a crucial phase, developed nations are trying to push their commercial interests in the farm sector, undermining the livelihood and food security issues of the developing countries like India. All eyes will be on the revised texts on agriculture and non-agriculture market access, which are likely to be released on Monday, to see how these issues are reflected in them.
After scripting a turnaround in the fortunes of the Indian Railways, union minister Lalu Prasad has now envisioned the prospect of utilising surplus water from various rivers using large pipes for the country's 24,000-km railway tracks. "The railways is like an empire, it is a league apart, its vast network criss-crossing across the country can help the government in water management," said the minister, who was in Malaysia to witness the signing of a railway double track contract awarded to public sector company IRCON by the Malaysian government.
Bhutan has a potential for organic farming, given the right production environment, say agriculturists and experts from the US. With the country's vast forest producing abundant biomass and other natural resources, organic farming in the country is a more sustainable agricultural model, which can produce both sufficient quantities and high quality nutritious food.
Soaring food prices are forcing millions of Filipinos into poverty, the Asian Development Bank said in a study released here Sunday.
Mangrove forests are extraordinarily diverse coastal communities anchored by salt-tolerant plants along certain tropical seacoasts. Their distinctive aerial roots help to trap sediment, prevent shoreline erosion, and provide habitat for a variety of sea life. Their unique mode of viviparous reproduction (producing seeds that germinate before becoming detached from the parent plant) allows for the rapid dissemination of viable young plants. Mangrove swamps or forests are among the most productive wetlands on the planet.
The United Nations World Food Programme has started distributing food assistance to meet the immediate food needs of over 1.2 lakh people affected by rodent attack in Rangamati and Bandarban. The WFP will continue to assist 25,680 households of the 31 most affected unions of the seven severely affected upazilas for a period of four months, from May to August 2008, said a press release.
Weighing our own prosperity against the chances that climate change will diminish the well-being of our grandchildren calls on economists to make hard ethical judgments.
Experts at a seminar here yesterday urged the government to include the proposed surface water based North Rajshahi Irrigation Project (NRIP) in the upcoming budget to increase food production in there district. They said, implementation of the Tk 860 crore project would help increase food production by 2.11 lakh tonnes by providing irrigation facility to 74850 hectares of land in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon.
The draft National Child Labour Policy, which was circulated for opinions from the stakeholders, will soon be placed before the Council of Advisers for approval, said Labour and Employment Adviser Anwarul Iqbal yesterday. "I believe once approved the policy will contribute to the elimination of child labour both in government and private institutions,' he added. The adviser was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of a national seminar titled 'Eradication of hazardous child labour' organised by labour and employment ministry at Biam auditorium in the city.
