The right to information act (RTI) which is hailed as a great leap forward in the direction of transparency in governance is under serious threat. The UPA government that showcased the historical act as one of its achievements in the last Lok Sabha elections now seems to be bowing down to the system’s high and mighty by proposing amendments which seem designed to take the sting out of the people’s...

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) today considered the approval of Bt Brinjal at their 97th meeting. Internal sources say that GEAC approved the environmental release of Bt Brinjal although there were three voices of dissent within the committee, including that of Supreme Court observer and noted molecular biologist Dr P.M Bhargava. It is further believed that committee’s recommendations have been sent for the final government approval for commercial release....

A brinjal engineered through biotechnology to kill plant-eating insects, the focus of a sharp and bitter debate about the safety of genetically modified plants, has leapt closer to dinner tables in India. The government’s apex safety review panel for genetically engineered products today approved the release of the brinjal into the environment, turning it into India’s first GM food crop ready for commercial cultivation. The final clearance now rests with...

Greenpeace, in collaboration with several civil society organisations, has launched a peoples’ campaign against ‘genetically contaminated food.’ The idea is to get thousands of citizens to write and send faxes to the Union Environment Minister Jairam Raesh before a high-powered government committee called the GEAC approves commercial cultivation in India of Bt brinjal.   The activists believe that urgent action is required before the process of contaminating our food supply...

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has brought out an excellent compilation titled Climate Change, Politics and Facts. The government is planning legislation with targets for greenhouse gas emissions. Perhaps to bolster this, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has published results of five studies - NCAER/Jadavpur, TERI/MoEF, IRADE, TERI/Poznan and McKinsey - and findings have been contrasted and collated by CSE. As per all these models except for TERI/Poznan,...