DEALS WITH MULTINATIONALS AND OTHER BIG AGRIBUSINESS COMPANIES A wide range of farmers’ organisations, Gandhian organisations, people’s movements and NGOs have united to oppose a series of disturbing agreements which the Rajasthan Government reached with various multinational and other agribusiness companies including Monsanto. These agreements, which greatly increase the control and influence of these companies over the agriculture sector in India’s biggest State (in terms of area), have proved so controversial...

Government not to shift 350 metric tonnes of toxic waste Bhopal Oversight Committee to study restoration of plant Facing strong protests from local people and activists, the government has finally decided not to move 350 metric tonnes of toxic waste from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal to an incinerator in Pithampur. The decision was taken at a Thursday meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) dealing with the Bhopal gas leak disaster...

Without additional funding in the battle against tuberculosis for research, improved prevention, early diagnosis and treatment, some 8 million people will die from what is largely a curable disease between now and 2015, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned today. “There is cause for optimism,” he said in a message marking World Tuberculosis Day. “The recent adoption of a fast and powerful new diagnostic tool promises to accelerate international gains against the disease. “At...

Rights group Amnesty International has criticised a tough Indian law which it says has been used to detain up to 20,000 people without trial in Indian-administered Kashmir. Amnesty urged India to scrap the Public Safety Act (PSA) which allows detention for up to two years without charge. The group also criticised the judiciary for its failure to protect human rights of the detainees. Kashmir has been gripped by a violent separatist insurgency since...

Four children died at the Rambagh hospital in Adipur in Kutch district of Gujarat on Wednesday after they were given oral vaccinations for measles. According to a government spokesman, seven children in the 0-1 age group from a slum colony were given the oral vaccines by Health Department officials. Four of them soon developed adverse symptoms and were rushed to hospital where they died during treatment. Till evening, Collectorate officials had...