In his recent Budget speech, the finance minister reiterated the government’s plans to make India “slum-free” within five years. This mantra is now being chanted in many urban-related conferences. However, this raises a number of questions. What does a “slum-free” India really mean? Is the removal of slums really desirable? Most importantly, what needs to be done to improve the lives of the millions of urban poor? In this article,...

This staggering loss has affected India's agri business Sustainable supply chains needed to link farmer to marketing centres The decline in the farm sector will hit the food and grocery retail sector too. It is estimated that the growth rate in the food and grocery retail sector will dip to 8.8 per cent during 2009-10 from 9.5 per cent during 2008-09. The food and grocery retail sector is worth Rs. 10.24 lakh crore....

The recent one-day strike by the fishermen community in some coastal states and the demonstration staged near the Parliament House in Delhi are a measure of how incensed the community is over the proposed new Central legislation to regulate marine fisheries in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Marine Fisheries (Regulation and Management) Bill, 2009, the draft of which has been circulated to states prior to its introduction in...

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...

   Spurred in part by the debate over Bt brinjal, and in part by the controversy raised abroad by certain products based on nanotechnology, the government is planning to set up a regulatory board  in March that will examine all new nanotechnology devices before they are commercially marketed. “The reason we’ve had problems with Bt brinjal is that we don’t have a strong regulatory body,” C. R. N. Rao, scientific...