Corruption and human rights issues continue to be neglected by companies despite ongoing interest in United Nations-led efforts to ensure ethical corporate conduct, according to the findings of a new survey by a global initiative that seeks to foster responsible business practices. The UN Global Compact surveyed a total of 1,044 businesses in 97 countries, representing nearly 20 per cent of all of the initiative’s participants last year, and the...

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Tuesday approved a scheme for providing highly subsidised sanitary napkins to adolescent girls in the rural areas to promote menstrual hygiene. The scheme, to be launched in 150 districts across the country in the first phase, will cost Rs.150 crore for the current financial year. Approved by the Mission Steering Group – the highest decision-making body – of the National Rural Health...

Pollution contents were 300 to 1,000 per cent more than the norms The Gujarat Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, a voluntary organisation working for environmental protection, has come out with startling facts on how the badly treated industrial effluents are being dumped in the major rivers in the State and in the sea. The rivers include the Narmada, Mahisagar, Sabamarti and Damanganga and the sea outlet is in the Gulf of Cambay. Samiti convener...

A global survey’s rating of Indian consumers as the greenest in the world, though significant in itself, should be viewed in perspective. In the annual survey carried out by the National Geographic Society and the international polling firm GlobeScan, India topped the ranking for the eco-friendly consumption pattern of its population for the second year in a row. Brazil has been adjudged second, China third and the US last in...

WITH the introduction of short-term, high-yielding varieties of cereal and oil-seed crops, the cropping intensity has now reached almost 300 per cent in Punjab. Moreover, the intensive use of chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides involve greater use of scarce groundwater resources. The water table has gone down alarmingly resulting in huge investment on installation of costly submersible pumps to draw water for irrigation. This does not auger well for sustainable...