-International Rivers With an enduring drought ravaging many parts of the country, last month the Prime Minister waxed eloquent on the need to safeguard water during his monthly radio monologue. He raised some valid points on cropping patterns, frugal water use, collection and storage traditions etc., but he was conspicuously silent on the need to protect wetlands. Perhaps it’s no coincidence then that the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change recently...

-The Hindu The direction of the wind, intensity of the rain and several other factors go into determining whether a rainy spell qualifies as monsoon. In our eagerness for monsoon to arrive, any long drizzle may make it seem as though the annual rainy season is finally here. But not all rain spells that arrive in June qualify to be monsoon showers. For example, the sudden showers that greeted a parched Chennai...

-The Hindu Argue that proposed amendments to Act will only enable legalising child labour Chennai: Amidst efforts by the Union Labour Ministry to bring in certain amendments to the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 and to allow children below 14 years of age to ‘help’ in family enterprises, activists demand that the government should not pass the bill in Parliament. In the run-up to Anti Child Labour Day on...

-The Times of India Chennai: Four months from now, the dynamics of local bodies is set to change. Half of 1.32 lakh posts in municipal corporations, municipalities, town panchayats and panchayats will be represented by women — up from one-third now. The AIADMK government has notified the law guaranteeing 50% reservation for women in all local bodies. The legislation was passed in the last assembly in February . In an extra-ordinary gazette notification...

-Hindustan Times Chennai: The year was 1986. It was a hot, humid day in June when Dr Suniti Solomon first discovered that the deadly HIV/AIDS virus had made its way to India. Then a young doctor, Suniti was testing 100 sex workers as a part of a research project at the Madras Medical College (MMC). Little did she known that a small, humble Madras laboratory’s preliminary research would precipitate a medical challenge on...