Each night, as temperatures continue to plunge and Delhi shivers through its coldest winter in the last decade, a few more people lose their lives on its streets. The people who succumb to the cold include rickshaw-pullers, balloon-sellers and casual workers, the footloose underclass of dispossessed people who build and service the capital city of the country and yet are forced to sleep under the open sky. They die because...

The now-familiar debate over Bt brinjal, the first genetically modified food crop almost poised for commercial production in India, posits greater productivity and resistance to pests against health and Environmental concerns. A new semi-debate has been generated by the decision of the Union Environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, to conduct public consultations across the country at which scientists, non-governmental organizations, and representatives of consumer bodies may present their views. Scientists in...

Pratibha urges “out-of-the-box” thinking on agriculture  Involve agricultural economy more pro-actively in growth process Stress on “Environment of security” for optimal attainment of growth President Pratibha Patil’s address to the nation on Monday, on the eve of the 61st Republic Day, reflected the common citizen’s worries on two counts: the unyielding price situation and challenges to internal security. She also touched upon climate change, underlining the use of “energy efficient technologies and...

It is probably the best news for Mumbai's leading builders who had invested thousands of crores of rupees on buying prime plots to develop flats and residences but got stuck in the Environment tangle as the land was classified later as forest area. After years of uncertainity, the Supreme Court on Monday cleared their construction activity. However, the green light came with two riders — one they must pay the...

An international private-social group foresees India’s water demand exceeding availability by a factor of two by 2030. Time is now for India to take on the daunting task of formulating a unifying national water policy.  The 2030 Water Resources Group is a consortium of private-social sector organisations formed in 2008 to provide insights into emerging world-wide water issues. In a report, “Charting our water future” issued in 2009, the group...