-Mainstream Weekly   DEMAND AT PRESS CONFERENCE IN NEW DELHI A press conference was held in New Delhi on May 4, 2011 to protest against the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest’s “final clearance” to the POSCO project in Odisha. The following is the press release issued by the POSCO Pratirodh Solidarity (PPS-Delhi) in association with NFFPFW, CSD, NAPM, INSAF, and others at the press conference. The ‘final forest clearance’ by the Ministry...

The passport office in Hyderabad reported the highest number of passport applications recorded in Indian history (at least 450,000) and it expects an increase of 15-20% this year Jamuna Kunta sits stiffly in a plush red chair at the Hyderabad press club, holding her head proudly erect as she quietly recounts the events leading to her husband’s suicide in Dubai. A farmer from Karimnagar, a rural district in Andhra Pradesh, her husband...

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...

Cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, and chronic respiratory diseases account for 63 per cent (36 million) of all deaths globally. This is the finding of the World Health Organisation's global status report on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) for 2008, and the situation is unlikely to be very different today. The picture also runs counter to the general perception that such deaths are largely restricted to developed countries. In truth, nearly 80 per...

The head of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) warned today that the “slow-motion catastrophe” of non-communicable diseases could overwhelm even the wealthiest nations if the root causes of the epidemic, mostly lifestyle decisions, are not addressed. Margaret Chan, the WHO Director-General, told delegates at the First Global Ministerial Conference on Healthy Lifestyles and Noncommunicable Disease Control in Moscow that the fact the many of the chronic non-communicable illnesses in...