-The Times of India DOHA: The Union environment and forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan may not come to the climate talks but the Indian delegation here led by special secretary M Mehrishi has got the nod from the cabinet to draw its strong redlines at the Doha round of UN negotiations. The government has ordered the Indian delegation at Doha to not enhance its pledge of reducing emissions intensity at Doha and reiterated...
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Are genetically modified crops finally on their way out of India?-Darryl D’Monte
-First Post Predictably, the recommendation by an experts’ panel appointed by the Supreme Court - that trials of genetically modified (GM) crops should be halted for 10 years – has stirred a hornet’s nest. Such a moratorium would include ongoing trials and the court rejected it. This follows on the heels of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture’s 492-page report published in August which asked for the banning of GM food crops...
More »Where whistleblowers are hounded out -Chander Suta Dogra
-The Hindu The trials and tribulations of Ashok Khemka and Sanjiv Chaturvedi expose Haryana’s intolerance of upright bureaucrats When Haryana’s top land registration official, Ashok Khemka, decided to probe Robert Vadra’s land deals in the State, he perhaps never anticipated the kind of animosity that his actions against Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law would generate within the government. Or, maybe he did, but went ahead nevertheless, hoping that a proactive media would...
More »House panel highlights forest law conflicts -Nitin Sethi
-The Times of India How can a right given under one Act be a criminal offence under another, members of a Parliamentary standing committee have asked officials from the Union environment ministry, raising concern about conflict between the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, and the Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927. The House panel on science and technology and environment and forests headed by T Subbarami Reddy of Congress was gathering evidence on...
More »The Coming Famine In India-Binayak Sen
-Mainstream Weekly Dr Binayak Sen, an internationally renowned medical practitioner and social activist (a leading figure in the People’s Union for Civil Liberties), was incarcerated in Chhattisgarh and held in detention in Raipur having been branded as a Maoist for his activities in defence of poor tribals in the State. He is now out on bail. The following is the text of the Arvind Narayan Das Memorial Lecture he delivered in...
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