There is a suggestion circulating in the corridors of our apex monetary regulatory authority, the Reserve Bank of India, that food inflation is beginning to look more ‘structural’ than ‘seasonal’, and it can only be tackled by addressing the supply side. We need to address both demand and supply sides simultaneously to tackle food inflation. While we must be happy that more and more poor eat fruits and cook vegetables...

Krishi Bhavan supports endosulfan companies; Kerala protests THE timing and the message of the conference could not have been more stark. At a time when the endosulfan problem is in the limelight, sparking calls for a nationwide ban on the pesticide, its manufacturers staged a remarkable feat. They held a three-day conference on rural prosperity at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan, venue for high-power official meetings, and put across the message that the hazardous...

While survivors of the Bhopal gas leak disaster have been demanding that Dow Chemical, the current owner of the Union Carbide Corporation, be held liable for the clean-up of the disaster site, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry granted approval to a project involving Reliance Petroleum Ltd and Dow Global even after apprehensions were expressed by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. It now appears that the approval, granted shortly...

Curative plea filed in Supreme Court on anniversary of tragedy Coinciding with the anniversary of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, the Centre on Friday filed a curative petition seeking enhancement of the compensation of $ 470 million determined by the Supreme Court in 1989 on the ground that this settlement was arrived at on the basis of assumptions of truth unrelated to realities. The Centre as parens patriae (parent of the...

The issues relating to the victims of endosulfan, sprayed in the plantations of Kasargod district in Kerala, have snowballed once again. “Earthworms emerged from the soil, and, subsequently, died. Then birds came to eat the earthworms and they died as well.”   “Some termites were killed in a cotton farm sprayed with endosulfan. A frog fed on the dead termites, and was immobilised a few minutes later. An owl which flew over...