-The Times of India HYDERABAD: Is Bt Brinjal safe? The demonisation of BT crops got a push with the parliamentary committee on agriculture in its report submitted last month commenting that transgenics in food crops would be fraught with unknown consequences. But the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) says that Bt Brinjal is safe. A voluminous report on the laboratory experiments carried out...

-The Hindu An important bill that seeks to protect women, including domestic workers, from sexual harassment at workplace was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday, even as the House witnessed din and disruption over coal blocks allocation for the ninth day. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill, 2010, was passed without discussion, as BJP members stood in the well, shouting slogans demanding the resignation of...

-The Times of India Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan has overruled objections from her officials to break the forest bureaucracy's monopoly over the annual Rs 10,000 crore bamboo trade and declared it a 'minor forest produce' instead of a 'tree' under forest laws. This will allow tribals, instead of forest departments, to harvest and auction bamboo, which is one of the major raw materials for the paper, pulp and board industry, from their...

-PTI New radiation norms for telecom towers come into force from tomorrow, allowing only a tenth of the emission permitted by the existing guidelines. The move is a precautionary one aimed at addressing public health concerns, although a government-appointed expert panel has found no direct link between health and exposure to the electromagnetic frequency radiation from mobile towers. The bulk of the expected fall in emission levels has already been achieved, since 95...

-PTI Environment Ministry has constituted a high-level Working Group headed by eminent space scientist and Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan to examine the Western Ghats ecology expert panel report "in a holistic and multidisciplinary fashion". The nine-member Group will examine the Madhav Gadgil committee report released recently "in a holistic and multidisciplinary fashion keeping in view the comments received from the concerned state governments, central ministries, stakeholders", the Ministry said. The panel will...