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  • Stumbling along on the road to green

    A documentary telecast on Rajiv Gandhi's 50th birth anniversary examines the late Prime Minister's environmental initiatives, but finds the country has not moved very far in the direction Rajiv wanted it to go

  • Shedding the load

    The government proposes reductions in subsidies on power, irrigation and higher education

  • Weaving green into the budget

    Weaving green into the budget

    The Centre for Science and Environment recently interviewed a number of environmental experts, industrialists and economists to come up with a list of suggestions for green taxes and financial incentives:

  • Inklings

    In which we trace where the world stands with fuel cells and some clear signals of the technology to come

  • Biochemicals sweep US free of petrochemicals

    Biochemicals sweep US free of petrochemicals

    Growing environmental awareness is making the Americans switch from chemicals derived from fossil fuels to those made from plant matter.

  • Court bars slum dwellers defecating in the open

    Court bars slum dwellers defecating in the open

    Residents of Delhi's slums find themselves in a Catch 22 situation. Public conveniences in the Capital are woefully inadequate, but when they are compelled to defecate outdoors, residents of adjoining colonies take them to court.

  • Paying a high price

    Forty thousand dams have rendered 60 million people homeless the worldover

  • Swallowing a live fish may get rid of asthma

    Swallowing a live fish may get rid of asthma

    A miracle cure for asthma continues to attract patients in thousands despite the scepticism expressed by medical experts

  • The third wind

    The third wind

    The new challenges before Japan require leadership from not just the government and the corporate sector but also the civil society

  • MONEYMAKERS

    neem-based pesticide: To encourage the use of eco-friendly and biodegradable pesticides, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has approved the ISI mark for Mukumbi Manufacturing Company of

  • Treating a compound

    Treating a compound

    Scientists have developed a device to identify the sources of a carcinogenic compound

  • Spur to militancy?

    Investments in the Northeast fail to generate employment

  • Monkeys destroy crops in Himachal, farmers fume at government apathy

    Monkeys destroy crops in Himachal, farmers fume at government apathy

    ON December 23, 2006, more than 200 people gathered in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, to protest the government's inaction regarding crop depredation by wildlife, especially monkeys, in the state.

  •  Fuelling devilish debate

    Fuelling devilish debate

    The CSE thesis of devil engines is simply deceptive. It is, to say the least, unbelievable that improved, pollution-controlled new technology engines and 0.05 per cent (50 parts per million) sulphur quality diesel are more lethal

  • No mood for a party

    While the buzz of e commerce has been accepted, the discordant noise of environment has been conveniently left out

  • Politics over economics

    This Budget asks and answers some rather big questions. Begin by asking the man in the street, and he will say that he is happy with Mr Chidambaram's Budget. And so the finance minister has dared politicians to criticize the farm loan waiver, and he might as well dare others to criticize the income tax cuts, if they care to. In other words, he knows that he has touched a popular nerve in both city and country. The second big question to ask, therefore, is whether economics can hope to prevail over populism, or whether political considerations always trump good economics. Certainly the UPA government's fifth and final budget gives unequivocal answers: it is a political budget from start to finish. And so a government led by economists and economic reformers has ended up bowing to political considerations and implementing over five years programmes that they may not believe in, but which they have to introduce and then find reasons to support. When a government led by such notables writes off Rs 60,000 crore of bank money, or 3 per cent of all bank loans, it is as well to remember the harsh words hurled at Devi Lal when he did the same; but since he was an unlettered kulak, he could be safely abused. The truth is that while farmers have been in distress, writing off loans makes every farmer who repaid his loan feel like a fool. What does that do to credit discipline? Also, the write-off does not end rural indebtedness because farmers owe more money to moneylenders. And if they got into financial trouble because farming does not pay enough, then the debt write-off is only a palliative and does not solve the underlying problem. So farmers who borrow again (if the banks are willing to lend) will also get into trouble again. But these are the questions that economists ask. There is also a question that lawyers might ask: how does the government tell the client of a private bank not to repay a loan, unless the government makes it up to the bank? And surely, the government is not about to start paying up to ICICI and HDFC and all the others, is it? The triumph of politics shows also in the national rural employment guarantee programme, which has been extended to all 596 rural districts, even though Rahul Gandhi who first demanded this realises now that the programme is not being implemented well. Another indicator of the soft state is the increase in the income tax floor from Rs 1.1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh (it is still higher for women and senior citizens). But even in the United States of America, people start paying tax at a lower income level of $3,400 (Rs 1.36 lakh), while in China the tax floor is $1,400 (Rs 56,000). India is poorer than both those countries, so why do people with higher income in a poorer country get away without paying income tax? The answer is that the government wants the urban, middle-class vote. The fifth indicator of politics trumping economics is the government's refusal to raise petrol, diesel and cooking gas prices to reflect their real cost. So the oil marketing companies have lost over Rs 70,000 crore on this account in the past one year. The way the government does its accounting, some of these figures do not show up in the Budget, even though the government will finally have to pick up the bill. If you add up the oil subsidy, the fertilizer subsidy, the extent of the loan write-offs that have to be made good and the money that has to be provided for the Pay Commission award, the total is huge. That brings up another big question: should the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act be scrapped? For this law seems to be having the perverse effect of making the government hide more and more of its expenditure and not show it in the Budget. The finance minister can then claim that he is meeting FRBM targets, when in truth he is not. Scrapping the law might encourage more honest budgeting. The last big question is whether governments can be trusted to be responsible with money. Note that taxpayers have paid up an average of 22 per cent more tax each year through the five Budgets of the UPA government

  • Kolkata governor's lessons to Al Gore: Sufficiency, not just efficiency

    <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopalkrishna_Gandhi">Gopalkrishna Gandhi</a>, the governor of West Bengal knows that we need to learn to walk the talk. He lives, as he says, in a 84,000 sq feet building &ndash; <a href="http://rajbhavankolkata.gov.in/">the majestic Raj Bhawan</a> (Governor&rsquo;s residence) &ndash; in a massive 11 hectare plot of land in the heart of Kolkata city.

  • Copenhagen: excluding people and voices for an unfair deal

    <p>The Copenhagen conference will definitely go down as the worst meeting in global climate negotiations. There is a complete mess here: lines of people standing outside the Bella Centre, where the conference is taking place, wanting to get in. Inside the meeting has broken down for the umpteenth time because industrialized countries refuse to commit to cutting emissions.

  • Beyond Rio+20

    It was June of 1992. The location was Rio de Janeiro. The occasion was the world conference on environment and development. A large number of people had come out on the streets. They were protesting the

  • Lunawa Environmental Improvement & Community Development Project

    Lunawa Environmental Improvement & Community Development Project

    <p><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Lunawa Environmental Improvement &amp; Community Development Project</strong></span></p> <p><img alt="" src="http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/country/srilanka/lunawara_hl.jpg" style="border-width: 2px; border-style: solid;" /></p> <p>The Lunawa Environmental Improvement &amp; Community Development Project (2003-10), was the first &lsquo;test&rsquo; of Sri Lanka&rsquo;s National Involuntary Resettlement Policy. Today it is touted as an innovative, pro-poor model for infrastructure projects in the developing world, especially relevant for the involuntary resettlement of people from densely populated urban areas.</p>

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