Health activists and non-government organisation working against tobacco abuse, Health Related Information Dissemination Among Youth (HRIDAY), have written to Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, urging her to support the timely implementation of strong and effective pictorial health warnings on tobacco product packages. “The current pictorial health warnings in India are extremely mild and ineffective to communicate the hazardous health effects of tobacco use. Since the Department...
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Endosulfan: meet in Geneva begins, India still in denial by Savvy Soumya Misra
Sharad Pawar says many states had asked him not to ban the pesticide Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is rooting for endosulfan just before the fifth Conference of Parties (COP) of the Stockholm Convention meets in Geneva from April 25 to April 30 to decide the fate of the pesticide. There seems to be a pattern in Pawar’s resistance to banning endosulfan. Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha on February...
More »Right to information left to rot! by G Manjusainath
The RTI Act was envisaged as a potent weapon to fight corruption by ushering in an age of transparency. Yet powerful men in power have ganged up to throttle the law through deliberate delays and by arm-twisting applicants. A comprehensive look at the law. Aweapon in the hands of people. That was how the Right to Information (RTI) Act was envisaged, almost six years back. But the bureaucracy, in connivance with...
More »Sustained efforts needed to eliminate bird flu in remaining countries–UN
While most countries have managed to stamp out bird flu, eliminating the virus from poultry in the six countries where it remains endemic will take at least 10 years, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says in a new report. The H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1 HPAI), which was reported in 60 countries at its peak in 2006, remains “firmly entrenched” in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India,...
More »Wheat a high
India is growing more wheat than it ever was. While other leading wheat producing countries like China and US are witnessing a decline in output, the country has stood as an exception with an estimated record production of 84.27 million tonnes of the staple foodgrain this year. Russia, Canada and Australia, too, are witnessing a downturn. “India is gaining internationally in the wheat production,” S S Singh, Project Director of Directorate of Wheat...
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