-Down to Earth   Orders forest department to restore honey seized during raid The court of judicial magistrate of Chamrajnagar in Karnataka has upheld the rights of Soliga tribal people to harvest and sell forest produce independent of the forest department. On May 24, the court ordered Punjanur range forest officer to return 1,100 kg of honey seized from the Hosepodu gram sabha, located within the Biligiri Rangaswami Temple (BRT) tiger reserve, during...

-The Hindu     Angry residents had initially refused to perform the last rites of the Mumbai acid attack victim Angry and distraught residents of Narela spilled onto the streets and refused to perform the last rites of local girl Preeti Rathi, whose body was flown back to the Capital early on Monday morning from Mumbai. Preeti had succumbed to acid attack injuries this past Sunday. However, following a day-long outrage over the incident, the...

-The Hindu "Farming is fascinating. The only thing is that it requires continuous hard-work and devotion without any distraction" says Mr. Barun Singh, a government bank manager-turned-farmer. Mr. Barun Singh maintains a vermi-composting unit in a portion of his 10 acre land. A dairy unit is attached to the composting unit so that the cattle dung can be easily utilized for the process without much labour involvement. Waste materials like dried leaves, rotten...

-The Business Standard USFDA's zero tolerance policy requires our drug firms to reorient not just processes but organisational cultures to serve that market credibly The following two quotes from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) news releases may help put the Ranbaxy controversy in perspective. The first sums up what it is that drives the FDA and the second is typical of the challenge the pharmaceutical industry faces. (1) "The consent...

-Frontline The Central government's proposal to hand over the supply of supplementary nutrition to NGOs in the name of "community participation" is surely an invitation for private profiteering on the back of this supposedly public scheme. ENSURING safe and healthy conditions for the reproduction of the population is obviously the most fundamental requirement of any society. So the progress of a society can be determined (and indeed is routinely judged) by the...