Yesterday was the last day of the Auto Expo 2012 in New Delhi. It should have been the first day of ending our obsession with cars and instead, realise what this fascination is doing to our insides. Over a decade ago, Delhi was a heroic city. It had successfully reduced air pollution by shifting buses and three-wheelers from diesel to CNG. But now, Delhi's residents are choking again. Recently, this paper...
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Around 13% of food samples found contaminated nationwide by Kounteya Sinha
After milk, the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has found contamination to be quite common among food items across the country. A comparative analysis has shown adulteration rates as high as 40% in Chhattisgarh, 34% in Uttarakhand, 29% in Uttar Pradesh, 23% in Rajasthan and 20% in West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh. Besides, nearly 17% of the food samples tested in Bihar and Chandigarh, 16% in Nagaland, 15% in...
More »Tracker controversy by TK Rajalakshmi
The use of tracker technology to zero in on the misuse of diagnostic techniques for sex determination has evoked mixed reactions. ONE of the least discussed issues in the context of the data thrown up by Census 2011 is the worrisome decline in the child sex ratio (CSR) and the not-too-perfect implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, or PCPNDT Act. There is reason to...
More »India Inc plays safe; prefers lawful funding of political parties by Naren Karunakaran
The Aditya Birla Group increased its contribution to political parties about fourfold to Rs 30.5 crore in 2009-10 while the Bharti Group cut it from Rs 17 crore to zero. The two main national parties, Congress and BJP, received Rs 84 crore and Rs 82 crore, respectively, as contribution from all sources while a regional party like Sharad Pawar's NCP obtained only Rs 3 crore. The 2009-10 numbers of companies making legal...
More »Black money: I-T gets wary about secret bank account names; asks for oath
-PTI In order to guard against possible leakage of names figuring in the secret bank accounts lists it has received from foreign shores, the Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT has ordered the I-T department to obtain a signed undertaking from any government entity or department who demands the data for their own probe. The CBDT fears that if these names are leaked and they are publicised, global financial bodies like OECD...
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