The most powerful earthquake in China since 1950 shows the nation's insurance industry is decades behind those of the world's biggest economies. Just 5 per cent of the more than $20 billion of damages from the quake in Sichuan province is covered by insurance, according to estimates from an official at the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, who declined to be identified.
Q&A: Satinath Sarangi Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action tells SREELATHA MENON that activists made a mistake by delaying raising the issue of removal of the 8,000 tonnes of toxic waste from Union Carbide's Bhopal plant. Where were you when the 1984 disaster in Bhopal took place and what brought you to work there among the survivors?
The Goa Energy Development Agency (GEDA) Saligao, will be holding the Major State Level Workshop on Accelerated Promotion of Solar water Heating Systems in Domestic, Industrial and Commercial Sectors by Sensitization of Banks/Financial Institutions and other State holders at 10 am on May 21, 2008 which will be inaugurated by Chief Minister of Goa, Digambar Kamat in the distinguished presence of Chief Secretary/Chairman (GEDA) and Secretary (Non Conventional Energy Sources).
Miscreants felled about 100 fruit-bearing plants, including over 50 coconut saplings, at a farm in Vaddy-Merces. The incident, which is believed to have occurred in the wee hours of Friday, became known only in the morning when the daughters of the owner, Anthony Pereira, went to the farm. Though the exact reason behind the incident is not known, Mr Pereira and his family suspect that the incident could be linked to a tenants' association, of which Mr Pereira is the vice chairman.
CERs to rise 75% this year; India accounts for 43% of emission reductions issued by global body. In the backdrop of an increasing threat of global climate change, the worldwide carbon credit market is expected to grow by nearly 75 per cent in 2008. "The carbon market size, which was 40 billion Euro in 2007, is likely to grow up to 60-70 billion Euro in 2008," said Rajesh Srivastava, managing director, Rabo India Finance, speaking at an international conference on carbon credits on Friday.
Tulsi Tantir a rainmaker who cashed in on the unlimited supply of nature's energy, the wind---------
A mining company, with its eye on rich mineral deposits, is about to end the Dongria Kondh's way of life
Work has started on India's first Mass Rapid Transit System being implemented on the public private partnership mode Mumbai's infrastructure may be falling apart through municipal neglect and the city may have already been bartered away to builders, but none can dispute that its administrators are short of ambitious plans for its development.
In the district of Sirsa in Haryana, wage rates have increased appreciably after the nregs started being implemented there. Being a cotton-producing district, the daily wage for cotton-picking workers was around Rs85 when the scheme was launched. While the scheme offered Rs95, workers shifted to projects run under the scheme.
The national rural employment guarantee scheme completes two years and moves to cover all the districts in the country. Has it been worth it?
Gujarati farmers are known for their astute business sense. They invariably switch over to a crop that fetches them more money. Earlier, when the farmers in Gujarat found cotton cultivation more profitable than groundnut crop, they had started growing more cotton. This year, Gujarat farmers have taken to cultivation of wheat to reap a rich harvest.
The Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb) has come out with guidelines on environmentally sound management of e-waste. The guiding principles come at a time when there is a pressing need for intervention as the e-waste inventory in India is expected to shoot up in the coming years.
Bihani Cement Ltd, the flagship company of the Braj Binani Group, which has interests in cement, zinc and fibre glass, is growing globally. "We are trying to replicate what Anil Agarwal did to Vedanta," says Vinod Junej a, deputy managing director, Binani Cements.
S&T, agriculture ministries hold the key to exploiting a good monsoon to augment food production
The focus in Asia is now on the earthquake that killed untold thousands in China this week. It's worth pausing for a moment to consider how that country's biggest quake in 58 years offers a reason for optimism. The contrast between China's impressive relief efforts and Myanmar's shameful failure to allow the rapid delivery of international aid after this month's cyclone is as huge as it is telling. And China's response differs markedly from how it dealt with an earthquake that killed 250,000 people in 1976 in the northeastern city of Tangshan.
Common Wealth Economics for a Crowded Planet By Jeffrey D. Sachs 386 pages. $27.95. The Penguin Press.
China's main centers for designing, making and storing nuclear arms lie in the shattered earthquake zone, leading Western experts to look for signs of any damage that might allow radioactivity to escape. A senior federal official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue, said the United States was using spy satellites and other means to try to monitor the sprawling nuclear plants. "There appear to be no immediate concerns," the official said.
CHENGDU, China: Can earthquakes be predicted, their destructive impact forewarned? Most scientists would say no. But if some insistent Chinese bloggers are to be believed, nature provided enough warning to have saved many of those who perished this week. In the days before the deadly earthquake shook much of mountainous Sichuan Province, their stories go, ponds inexplicably drained, cows flung themselves against their enclosures and swarms of toads invaded the streets of a town that was later devastated by the quake.
BANGKOK: At risk of disease, abuse and forced recruitment into the armed forces, children are the most vulnerable survivors of the cyclone that hit Myanmar, many of them orphaned or lost, fending for themselves.
BEIJING: Four days after a powerful earthquake devastated a mountainous region of southwestern China, the nation's massive rescue and relief effort continued Friday, even though the hope of finding new survivors was dimming. Remarkably, relief officials said that they had rescued a child buried alive in the ruins of a middle school late Thursday, about 80 hours after the quake struck, and had also detected the sounds of several other children who could be trapped there.
