Endosulfan, the pesticide which is widely believed to be responsible for thousands of deaths, diseases and devastation, was able to save its own life largely because of India’s questionable efforts at global forums. The controversial pesticide has been in news for a long time because of its harmful effects on humans, wild life and the environment. Obviously the $100 million industry is going out of the way to defend the...

The Supreme Court turned down on Wednesday a government demand to re-open the case into the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy and hand harsher sentences to seven men convicted of negligence. The court dismissed CBI's curative petition seeking restoration of stringent charges against Bhopal tragedy accused saying it was fiLED 14 years after the 1996 judgment, which was only a prima facie view of evidence that had come on record till that...

The Tatas pulLED out of Singur; the Salims of Indonesia out of Nandigram. What is still ticking is the Jindals’ Rs-35,000-crore, 10-million-tonne steel plant at Salboni. It has the potential to churn out the first industrial success story for whoever captures power in West Bengal after May 13. Along with the steel plant, a 1,000-MW power project to is coming up. At one point, Salboni had appeared to have the makings of...

Ten days ago a well-informed reader in Kochi e-maiLED a convincing case for banning endosulfan, an off-patent pesticide widely used by farmers round the country, on the reasoning that it played havoc with the lives and livelihoods of poor farm workers. But the reader did not stop with this; he said The Hindu had not given the issue the attention it warranted. This LED me to a qualitative study of...

To restore the lost pride in the endosulfan issue, the Congress is planning to come up with a comprehensive rehabilitation package for the endosulfan victims of Kasargod when the UDF comes to power. The top leadership of the party in the state is of the view that the Stockholm Convention and the Central Government’s stand on the issue did not give due importance to the rehabilitation package and also into the...