10-day Clean Gomti campaign concludes
LUCKNOW: The 10-day campaign for 'Clean Gomti say no to polythene' concluded on Thursday at the Malviya Hall of Lucknow university. Teachers, students, engineers, doctors, religious leaders participated
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A third of mandals face drought threat in AP
Though copious rains in the last few weeks helped Andhra Pradesh achieve averages in rainfall, the distribution of rainfall is not uniform. Of the 1,128 mandals (revenue units), about 350 mandals received
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Parliament panel waves red flag to GM crops
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture has come down heavily against the use of genetically modified (GM) crops in the country. The Committee, which took almost three years to complete its
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Indian Oil urges dealers to run petrol bunks using solar power
The Indian Oil Corporation Ltd has urged its dealers to run petrol pumps on solar energy as part of a nationwide green initiative. The oil company had recently organized a seminar-cum-demonstration
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27 Gujarat villages on flood alert
Around 27 villages of Gujarat’s Narmada and Bharuch districts have been put on alert after water from the overflowing Narmada dam resulted in the perennial river breaching the danger mark at Golden Bridge.
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Agriculture development and food security
This report examines the challenges of achieving food and nutrition security and provides an update on progress in implementing sustainable agricultural policies and practices in line with the Rome Principles.
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Supreme Court orders disposal of Bhopal toxic waste in six months
Asks Centre, M.P. to go by recommendations of monitoring and advisory committees and NIREH The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Union government and Madhya Pradesh to take immediate steps for disposal of toxic waste lying in and around the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal in six months. A Bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices A.K. Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar said this should be done on the recommendations of the Empowered Monitoring Committee, the Advisory Committee and the National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH).
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SC notice to Centre, IGL on PNGRB powers to fix tariff
New Delhi The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to Delhi’s gas utility Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) and the Centre on a petition challenging the Delhi High Court judgment that held that petroleum and natural gas regulator PNGRB has no jurisdiction to fix rates or regulate gas tariffs. A bench headed by Justice KS Radhakrishnan sought reply from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas and IGL on PNGRB plea alleging that “the HC failed to note that it had not fixed the maximum retail price but only sought to fix the network tariff and compression tariff charges representing cost of transportation which are completely different. The latter is only one of the many components of the former’’.
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SC softens on Bellary mines closure
The Supreme Court on Thursday decided to consider the plea for re-opening of 16 iron ore mines in Karnataka, acknowledging the adverse impact on the steel industry due to ban on mining operations. A three-judge forest bench led by Justice Aftab Alam fixed as August 17 the date for considering the application filed by Karnataka Iron and Steel Manufacturing Association seeking direction to allow opening of 16 mines listed as ‘A’ category of mines having least irregularities by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC).
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The petition Chhattisgarh planned and then dropped
On April 26, 2010, Chhattisgarh additional secretary (law) Ravishankar Sharma wrote to the government’s additional standing counsel in Delhi, Aniruddh P Mai: “The state government has decided to file an
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Tower radiation: HC seeks data on Raj cancer patients
Jaipur: The Rajasthan high court, while hearing a case related to heath hazards due to mobile tower radiations, on Thursday sought data from the state on the number of cancer patients undergoing treatment
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Radiation from mobile towers may affect wildlife: Govt
Radiation from mobile towers may have varying negative impact on wildlife especially birds and bees, according to the Environment Ministry. Amid concerns over health hazards and impact on wildlife due to mobile tower radiation, the Environment Ministry has issued an advisory asking the Department of Telecommunications not to permit new mobile towers within a one-km radius of the existing ones. Noting there was a need to prevent the negative impact of electro-magnetic radiations (EMR) on birds and bees, the Ministry directed that the new towers should be constructed with utmost care and precautions 'so as not to obstruct flight path of birds, and also not to increase the combined radiation from all towers in the area'.
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Odisha eyes Rs 2500 cr investment in green energy
Investments worth Rs 2500 crore are expected to flow to Odisha in the renewable energy sector during the 12th Plan Period (2012-17). The state has targeted capacity augmentation of 350 MW from solar, wind and bio-mass sources during this period. “By 2017, we expect to have new capacities in solar energy (150 MW), wind energy (100 MW) and bio-mass generation (100 MW). The state regulator has fixed Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) according to which state utilities have to buy or generate at least five per cent green power”, said D N Gupta, secretary (science & technology).
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Rs.6-crore project to curb man-animal conflict
The Forest and Wildlife Department is gearing up to implement a Rs.6-crore project to curb the increasing man-animal conflict in the district. As a part of the project, the department would install 300 km of solar power fence around human settlements adjacent to forests, P. Dhaneshkumar, Divisional Forest Officer, South Wayanad, said. Power fences would come up in the border areas of the North and South Wayanad forest divisions, as well as in the Wayanad Wild Life Sanctuary. The NABARD had sanctioned Rs.6 crore for the project recently. The Kerala Forest Development Corporation would execute the project, Mr. Dhaneshkumar said.
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AERB grants clearance for initial fuel loading and first approach to criticality of unit - 1 of KKNPP
Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) granted clearance for 'Initial Fuel Loading' (IFL) and 'First Approach to Criticality' (FAC) of Unit-1 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KK NPP) on August 10, 2012.
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Upward trend towards Nirmal Meghalaya
Shillong: A roadmap drawn by the state in achieving Nirmal Meghalaya has shown an upward trend in the graph as far as the sanitation status or toilet average is concern with over 73 percent achievement, which is more than the national average, experts claimed. Experts of the Water and Sanitation Programme-South Asia (WSP-SA) has claimed that the state can become Nirmal Meghalaya in a period of two years adding that Meghalaya is one of the leading states as far as implementation of Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) now known as Nirmal Bharat Abiyan (NBA) in rural areas of the state is concerned.
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State schools still lack sanitation facilities
SHILLONG: Even though West Garo Hills district is the highest achiever in the State having done away with open defecation, it is still lagging behind in making schools ‘open defecation free’. According to available statistics, 45 per cent schools in the district still lack sanitation facilities although during the year 2011 a total of 216 villages in the West Garo Hills were awarded the ‘Nirmal Gram Puraskar’.
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Revised land acquisition bill proposed to be introduced in LS
The revised Land Acquisition Bill incorporating recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee is proposed to be introduced in Lok Sabha for its consideration, the Rural Development Ministry said
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Caching food, pilferage and deceiving by Indian common crows (Corvus splendens)
Corvid birds, including many species of crows, are known to exhibit behaviours indicative of their superior brain capacity in the avine world, with high cognitive abilities comparable to the non-human
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Heatwaves blamed on global warming
NASA climatologist James Hansen made headlines during the US heatwave of 1988, declaring in testimony to Congress and during interviews on prime-time television that a build-up of greenhouse gases was