Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
A Nipah-like virus, linked to the Siliguri fever of 2001, is the most likely cause of an epidemic that has afflicted Bangladesh. Until January, the pathogen had claimed more than 14 lives and affected 42 others. Now, 45 new cases are under investigation. The areas of high incidence are Manikganj …
• Yellow fever has struck Colombia, claiming the lives of eight people and infecting more than 27 others. The outbreak of the mosquito-borne illness has prompted the ministry of health in this Caribbean coast nation to declare an emergency. Fever, nausea and muscle pain are the symptoms at the acute …
Bird Flu Outbreak Avian influenza (ai) is spiralling out of control in Asia. So also is the spin being put to the disease. There was the spectacle of Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his entire cabinet feasting on a smorgasbord of chicken to ease public concern over the ai …
On the evening of January 24, social activists Sarita and Maheshkant attended a meeting at Shabdo village in Bihar's Gaya district. Soon after the villagers saw them off, they heard gunshots. They ran down to the main road in the neighbouring Rajabigha village and found Sarita lying in a pool …
Singapore may just have discovered a remedy to reduce water wastage at the household level. The city is known for its long-standing efforts at saving water through recycling water and promoting rainwater harvesting. Now, they have started the
The World Social Forum (WSF) concluded in Mumbai. Then began the World Economic Forum in Davos. A little before these, a glitzy automobile fair in Delhi. One after the other, loud and strident images. But even as an intensely stimulating energy of dissent swelled at WSF, I kept feeling the …
With summer coming and water-tables falling rapidly, the Centre is readying to build 235 water harvesting structures, including dams, in the Capital,from March this year. This will be part of the Rs 175 croreproject to work on 5,088 schemes of dif-ferent kinds all over the country. Alarmbells are ringing as …
At one point in the epic Mahabharata, the pandavs and kauravs go to warfare school. Amid thick forests, they train hard. Then, the time comes when they must leave. Yudhister, the eldest pandav, gifts the space as guru dakshina to his guru, Dronacharya. In time, there came up a town …
Baby Food When the amendment to the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods Act 1992 banned advertising and promotional activity for infant and weaning foods, there was talk that ad revenues would take a hit. But that is not to be so. Companies have retained ad agencies on …
Kali gajjar ki kanji Take one kg of kali gajjars (purple coloured carrots) and peel of their skin (beauty-conscious cooks should wear gloves to peel and chop the carrots, as the gajjar leaves black marks on the palms for at least a hour). After chopping the gajjars into small pieces, …
excessive use of pesticides, rodenticides and fertilisers is chiefly responsible for the arsenic crisis in West Bengal and Bangladesh. This controversial theory has been recently proposed by P K Sikdar and S Banerjee of the Kolkata-based Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, and the Centre for Study of …
The final stage of the international nuclear fusion project, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (iter), estimated to cost us $12 billion over the next 10 years, has been deferred. Officials from several countries meeting in Washington were unable to decide upon a location for the final stage of the project
We may celebrate Christmas Day this year in the name of science. On that day, the 400 million kilometer voyage of Beagle 2 will end: it will land on Mars, culminating Europe's first mission to explore other planets. In what is clearly a race with the us, it will try …
Wherever they exist India's urban elite splash on subsidies B Ashok a regime of pro-rich subsidies have ensured India's urban elites happilly benefit from organised water supply and sewage treatment services, wherever they exist. Water tariffs in India are among the lowest. Let us compare. In the us
water for both agricultural and domestic uses should be priced. This will curb wastage and ensure scientific management. Water wastage is sometimes as high as 200 per cent in canal irrigation. Since governments do not have the political resolve to increase the rates of irrigation water, they are encouraging participatory …
The winter session of parliament may have been truncated. It also got underway against the backdrop of the recent assembly elections as well as scandals involving former Union minister of state for environment and forests Dilip Singh Judeo and Chhattisgarh's ex-chief minister Ajit Jogi. Yet issues pertaining to the environment …
One of the impediments in meeting the national goal of 'Health for All' is the inability of successive governments to provide safe drinking water supply to all the villages and settlements in the country, especially the unreached ones.
