“85-90 per cent disposal done in unorganised sector”  Minister says he is against import of used computers in the name of charity Computers, mobiles and other electronic gadgets become e-waste at the end of their life cycle Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh announced in the Rajya Sabha on Monday that the government proposed to come out with a new set of rules for disposal of e-waste by May...

With the mountains of hazardous waste from electronic products growing exponentially in developing countries, sometimes by as much as 500 per cent, the United Nations today called for new recycling technologies and regulations to safeguard both public health and the environment. So-called e-waste from products such as old computers, printers, mobile phones, pagers, digital photo and music devices, refrigerators, toys and televisions, are set to rise sharply in tandem with...

The Centre is contemplating direct inclusion of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and minorities in the next below poverty line (BPL) list for entitlement of benefits under social welfare schemes. Inaugurating the two-day 10th Editors Conference on Social Sector Issues 2010 here on Monday, Minister for Rural Development C.P. Joshi said his Ministry was formulating the methodology and criteria to identify families to be included in the BPL list. The objective...

A UN Habitat publication warns that inequalities and worsening informal settlements (read slums) could lead to widespread violence and chaos in the cities and towns of the world. The newly-released report titled “Planning Sustainable Cities: Global Report on Human Settlements 2009” says that with almost 200,000 new dwellers flooding into the world cities and towns each day, there is an urgent need to check the mushrooming of such settlements. The...

The private sector uses bribes to influence public policy, laws and regulations, believe over half of those polled for 2009 Global Corruption Barometer. The Barometer, a global public opinion survey released today by Transparency International (TI), also found that half of respondents expressed a willingness to pay a premium to buy from corruption-free companies. “These results show a public sobered by a financial crisis precipitated by weak regulations and a...