Civil society groups and non-governmental organisations have strongly voiced their disapproval of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) recommending commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal in India. This is happening even as there are many unresolved issues surrounding the environmental release of the transgenic vegetable and genuine concerns over its safety for human consumption. There is also the threat of all future seeds and therefore indian agriculture coming under the control...

Civil society groups have cautioned the government against introducing genetically modified crops in the food chain and questioned the credentials of a panel of experts to look into the biosafety of Bt Brinjal, which will come up before the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) on Wednesday. The committee was set up by the GEAC to look into the findings of independent experts who raised concerns at the safety of Bt...

The recession is a promising moment to expand NREGA with greater emphasis on building social capital in a big way.  Soon after assuming office, the first UPA government took an impressive step for the alleviation of rural poverty by launching the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. It was, indeed, a wise move to insulate the programme from the vicissitudes of electoral politics by enacting the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act...

Vice President Hamid Ansari Tuesday expressed concern over unavailability of information on the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, or the act itself in 22 official languages of India and said this needs to be addressed at the earliest. Ansari was speaking at the second and the concluding day of the 4th annual RTI convention oragnised by the Central Information Commission (CIC) here. The two-day convention is organized by the Central...

Growing numbers of elected representatives fund their poll campaigns with corporate backing. And growing numbers of people with a big business background have ventured directly into the electoral arena.  Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid’s call for restraint, however mild, on the CEO feeding frenzy at the compensation trough, seems the least objectionable statement made by a Minister in months. (Contrast this, for example, with the Agriculture Minister’s warning that people...