The disclosure by the Centre for Science and Environment that 11 of the 12 leading brands of honey sold in India contain high levels of harmful antibiotics should make us acknowledge our failure to evolve and enforce environmental and health standards. Similar disclosures were made about pesticides in soft drinks and coliform bacteria in 'safe' bottled water. More distressing is the documentation since the 1980s of high content of pesticides...

“India is Shining” in many ways, but the major hiccups in the run up to the Commonwealth Games (CWG), which opened on October 3 in New Delhi, highlight India's serious problems. Despite the colourful display of India's arts and culture at the grand opening ceremony, the frantic last minute interventions —including enlisting the Army (who did a remarkable job) to help with the final preparations — reveal the gross inefficiencies...

A new round of UN climate talks opened in north China's Tianjin Municipality on Monday, which is expected to pave the way for the year-end Cancun summit in Mexico. About 3,000 delegates from party and observer countries under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol are attending the meeting on Oct. 4-9. They are expected to discuss the negotiating text reached at the Bonn talks in...

Chronic under-nutrition among women decreased in Bihar and Orissa The urban food security situation has deteriorated in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnakata and Madhya Pradesh, while Punjab showed a marginal worsening till 2006, says a Report on the State of Food Insecurity in Urban India released here on Friday by Union Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy. “Indicators such as the percentage of anaemia amongst women and children, the percentage of women...

Considerable sections of the urban population may face serious food insecurity even while the urban economy grows. There is a need for urgent action on this front. Over the two decades of rapid growth of the Indian economy, the urban economy is generally perceived as having done very well. However, high urban economic growth need not by itself imply improved living standards for all urban residents. In particular, the recent and...