On February 9, 2010, the then Minister of Environment and Forests, Government of India, Jairam Ramesh, imposed an indefinite moratorium on the introduction of Bt Brinjal in India. It is necessary and desirable to quote the order verbatim. It reads as follows: It is my duty to adopt a cautious, precautionary based approach and impose a moratorium on the release of Bt Brinjals till such time independent scientific studies establish, to...
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Untreated groundwater a serious health issue, says survey-Aarti Dhar
A survey of 71 cities across the country conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has shown that officially 82 per cent of all the water that municipalities of these cities supply comes from surface water resources, and the rest comes from groundwater resources. But of these 71 cities, 11 depend almost completely on groundwater for public water supply. In the remaining, agencies supply water from surface sources by...
More »AIIMS ducks RTI queries, time and again-Jaya Shroff Bhalla
On March 29, 2011, a Right to Information application on AIIMS faculty members travelling abroad on official tours was filed. The applicant sought details of their reasons for the visits, money spent and sponsors of the trips. AIIMS public information officer Lalit Kumar replied six days later saying, “The information is not available. Presently there are 450 committee members. The details for permission of this kind of work, thus the...
More »Confederation to launch forum for creating Dalit entrepreneurs
-The Hindu All India Confederation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Organisations will float a confederation of Dalit entrepreneurs for strengthening economic power of Dalits, according to Udit Raj, national chairman of the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations. Inaugurating the office of Karnataka unit of the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations at Hosabettu here on Sunday, Mr. Raj said the objective of launching the Confederation of Dalit Entrepreneurs (CDE) was...
More »'Green toilets' to be introduced in trains
-PTI BHOPAL: A city-based Engineering major has inked an agreement with a Denmark-based firm and the Defence Research Organisation to develop 'green toilets' for railways in a bid to keep trains, platforms and tracks clean and free from filth and corrosion. "Under the railways ambitious green toilet scheme two types of toilets based on vacuum and bacteria technology would be installed in trains in order to keep them green and clean," Daulat...
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