-The Hindu     There is little demonstrated evidence of health benefits from access to ‘improved' stoves and clean fuels Around three billion of the world's poorest people have to burn firewood, animal dung, crop waste and coal to cook food and heat homes, using traditional stoves and open fires. The health-Damaging smoke that results is estimated to cause some four million premature deaths each year, principally of women and children. Although many governments, multinational...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today refrained from passing any order on a plea for early listing of a PIL that had sought closure of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy, recently penalised by US authorities for allegedly supplying adulterated and substandard drugs. The public interest petition sought registration of criminal cases under the penal code and also the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1947, against company officials for allegedly cheating millions of patients in the...

-IANS Shimla: The hydropower projects in Himachal Pradesh -- in private and public sectors -- are not only gobbling up forests but also Damaging natural resources, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has found. The compensatory afforestation by the state is highly deficient as 58 percent of the test-checked hydropower projects reported no afforestation at all, the CAG said in its recent report. It pointed out that lack of re-greening of...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Unease among political parties over being brought under the purview of the RTI Act became evident on Tuesday with Congress strongly opposed the Central Information Commission (CIC) order and BJP also expressing its reservations. Barring CPI, no political party welcomed the decision. CPM said it cannot accept the CIC order as it felt opponents can use the ruling to "undermine" a political party. Janata Dal (U)...

-The Times of India LONDON: Food wastage is monumental globally, with 30 and 50% of food produced in the world (1.2-2 billion tonnes) is wasted. British MPs on the International Development Committee placed the country's most exhaustive assessment of food security in parliament on Tuesday and has thrown up some seriously worrying findings. They fear that food wastage globally could be as high as 50%. Valuable resources of land, energy, fertiliser and water...