Judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of In Re: Zudpi Jungle Lands. A batch of applications involved a peculiar issue concerning the situation prevailing in the six districts of eastern Vidarbha region namely Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. The issue pertains to the status of the …
THE INSISTENCE of foreign importers on not buying Indian carpets woven by children has begun to tell at every level in a Rs 750-crore industry in which weavers, exporters and the government have vital stakes. German consumers, the largest buyers of Indian carpets, insist that the carpets they buy must …
THE TEHRI dam project (TDP) is back in news. Even as engineering experts and scientists reiterated building such a high dam in a seismically sensitive region is hazardous, an offer from a consortium of Russian and Uzbek companies to finance the project brought joy to its proponents. A two-day workshop …
NATURAL gas is a potential oil substitute with low pollutant emission levels that could have eased India's energy crisis in the late 1970s and 1980s. Its use is a typical example of India's short-sighted energy policies going awry. Till the mid-70s, about 50 per cent of natural gas from oil …
IF YOU are planning to set up a new industrial project, you can get a quick overview of its technological and business potential in your office itself. The computerised information service that will make this possible was on display at the recent Indian Engineering Trade Fair in New Delhi. The …
FEARING a proposal to withdraw customs duty concessions on pesticides will result in price increases, farmers' organisations in north India are heading for a showdown with the government and pesticide manufacturers. The proposal to end customs concessions relates to certain pesticides that are also produced in India. The farmers contend …
A NEW CONDOM for women that gives them greater sexual freedom has been approved for sale in some European countries (Outlook Vol 10, No 2). The condom consists of a loose-fitting, polyurethane sheath with flexible rings at both ends. The smaller ring at the closed end is inserted into the …
It does not matter whether the assumptions made by the Tata Energy Research Institute are accurate or whether they will hold true. What matters is that TERI"s predictions of the country"s energy situation are grim -- and require urgent attention. If energy use in India is not rationalised and made …
The 80th session of the Indian Science Congress ended in the first week of January in Goa without adding to anyone's knowledge or wisdom. The importance of the theme of the conference -- Science and the Quality of Life -- did not get the attention it deserves in a country …
THE PAPERS on political themes in this compilation are based on the proceedings of a seminar in Honolulu organised by the University of Hawaii and the East-West Centre. The seminar ambitiously sought to assess independent India's political and economic development to chart out an action path for the 1990s. It …
COMMUNITY participation can work wonders when it comes to tackling diseases too recalcitrant to be curbed effectively by medical science alone. A fine example of this can be found in the Shertallai region in central Kerala, where the Pondicherry-based Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC) successfully involved the people in an …
THIRTEEN-year-old Seena is a rag-picker in Bangalore who used to sleep on the roadside and eat at pavement tea-stalls, constantly evading cops who pick up street-children like him and take them to a beggars' colony on the fringes of the city. But now, Seena and others like him need not …
WASPS from the same nest recognise each other by smearing wax from the outside of the nest onto themselves, discovered scientists at the University of Georgia in the US. If the wax is removed, nest-mates fail to recognise a member and drive it out. Poliste wasps (Polistes metricus) coat their …
THE RECENT attack on the Cargill Seeds India Pvt Ltd office in Bangalore, by members of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), is evidence of the growing awareness among Indian farmers about "gene thefts" by multinational corporations (MNCs) of the genetic resources of the Third World. More such attacks can …
THE TAMIL Nadu government's plan to construct a 737-km coastal highway from Madras to Kanyakumari has run into rough weather. Work on the 170-km stretch from Madras to Cuddalore came to a stop pending an environmental committee assessment of the impact of the Asian Development Bank-assisted highway project on the …
A CLASH of interests between traditional fisherfolk and owners of modern fishing trawlers is nothing new in Kerala's coastal districts. But the normally quiet village of Anchuthengu in Kollam district is caught in just such a struggle and has been riven by unprecedented acts of violence since last October. The …
INDIA is now exports 40 per cent of the iso-proturon (a wheat pesticide) it produces, a far cary from two years ago, when it had to import a large part of its requirement. But in return for the increased in foreign exchange, the country will have to pay in terms …
SCIENTISTS at Cambridge University's Department of Pathology have found an effective way of treating patients with long-standing rheumatoid arthritis, using "humanised monoclonal antibodies". Produced from animal cells, monoclonal antibodies are designed to order and can kill unwanted cells. Mainly used to treat cancer, these antibodies are now being used to …
Students and professors of the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay test-ran the prototype of a car that runs on compressed natural gas (CNG). The Rs 5 million research project, which took six months to complete, was sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology. While Premier Automobiles provided the …
THE CAMPAIGN by astronomers to stop artificial light in cities from affecting stellar views, which prevents them studying stars, is gaining a wider audience. Relentless light from surrounding cities has shut down the largest telescope at Mount Wilson in Southern California. Scientists believe artificial lights should be shielded so that …
Laundered money will be used to clean slums in 454 towns. Black money to the tune of Rs 63 crore, which was deposited last year with the National Housing Bank (NHB) for immunity under the Voluntary Deposits Scheme, will be used to establish a revolving corpus to refinance loans given …
