The United Nations has mobilized the fashion and cosmetics industries in an “eco-fashion” battle to curb the unprecedented loss of the world’s biodiversity, from over-Harvesting wild species for their skins or natural fibres to pollution caused by manufacturing processes. More than 500 prominent figures from government, international organizations and the above industries have been meeting in Geneva over the past two days at the UN Conference on Trade and Development...

The Ficci-Yes Bank report on farm mechanisation couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. For one, since it suggests waiving of VAT and excise duty on farm machinery, this is the time the Budget exercise has just begun. More important, the study points out that, while the use of new devices in performing key farm operations is vital for doubling agricultural growth from the present 2 per cent, the...

Interview with Joan Mencher, an anthropologist who has worked in India for long on issues such as agriculture, ecology and caste.   JOAN P. MENCHER is a Professor emerita of Anthropology from the City University of New York’s Graduate Centre and Lehman College of the City University of New York. She is the chair of an embryonic not-for-profit organisation, The Second Chance Foundation, which works to support rural grass-roots organisations...

Once the world's wettest places, Cherrapunji is getting up to 20% less rain every year - and is suffering water shortages. Residents say their heavenly abode in the clouds is hotter and drier than ever before - and they blame it on global warming. Cherrapunji - or Sohra in the local Khasi language - is located in the West Khasi Hills of India's north-eastern state of Meghalaya. "Never were there very...

The melting of Himalayan glaciers has been a bone of contention between international environmentalists and the Government of India. The government believes that some perceptions of the international environmentalists are alarmist. Now a new global report has sought to set aside that controversy by measuring the rate at which the Himalayan glaciers are melting. (The report enclosed below) The Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than the global average and the rate...