Training on Integrated Waste Management, AAETI
November 20-24, 2018
Reworking informal businesses
In countries like India, informal business is the existing order of the day
Sharing the Wealth of Minerals
India is a mineral rich country with more than 20,000 mineral deposits. The Indian mining industry is at par with the world's. India is the second largest producer of chromite, barytes and talc, third largest producer of coal and lignite and fourth largest producer of iron ore and kyanite, andalusite and sillimanite.
Food Safety Mess
Traders say Food Safety and Standards Act rolls out red carpet for multinationals
Mining bill gets it right
Sustainable mining is an oxymoron. Environmentalists will tell you this. Mining—coal to limestone—takes away forests, devastates mountains and leaves the land pockmarked. It also destroys livelihoods of people and displaces them. Worse, modern, mechanised mining takes away livelihood based on land but does not replace it with local employment—all estimates show that direct employment in the mining sector has fallen sharply. It provides wealth, but not for local development.
EU to certify buildings for energy efficiency from 2006
As per a new directive, the eu will certify buildings for energy efficiency from 2006 onwards. The European Climate Change Programme, established in 2000 to meet Kyoto Protocol targets, has identified the construction sector as providing the largest potential for carbon dioxide emission reduction. Buildings already account for up to 40 per cent of the eu's energy consumption. And southern European countries are buying more air-conditioning units, further disturbing the energy balance.
Endosulfan Conspiracy
It was in February 2001 that Down To Earth broke the story.
Farmers concoct pesticides out of colas
There is never any end to learning. And so, surprises. We have learnt, over 20 years, that environmental governance in India is lackadaisical.
Endosulfan Conspiracy
A link was established between the unusually high incidence of deformities and diseases in Padre, a village in Kerala's Kasaragod district and endosulfan, an organochlorine pesticide.
Coke in hot water
The Kerala High Court has ordered status quo to be maintained on the cancellation of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Limited's licence to operate its bottling plant at Plachimada in Kerala. The licence had been cancelled by the Perumatty gram panchayat in Palakkad district of Kerala, following complaints that the company was creating water scarcity in the area by overexploiting groundwater.
Heavy metal
Vaccines with mercury can cause autism, but removing the metal is uneconomical for developing countries such as India
Battle for the Internet
By Latha Jishnu and Arnab Pratim Dutta As the Internet turns into the public square and the marketplace of our world, it is increasingly becoming a contested terrain. Governments, corporations and even seemingly innocuous social networking sites want to control and influence the way it operates
India signs nuclear convention
By: Savvy Soumya Misra Intended as gift to Obama India signed the international convention on compensating nuclear accident victims on October 27. The convention, to a large extent, shields suppliers of nuclear energy technology from paying damages.
How government is subverting forest right act
By: Richard Mahapatra, Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava, Sumana Narayanan, Aparna Pallavi Two tribal villages in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra—Mendha Lekha and Marda— savoured victory when they won community rights over their forest resources in August last year. The rights conferred under the Forest Rights Act of 2006 include the right to collect and sell minor forest produce (MFP). These include tendu leaves used in beedis, and bamboo that have high commercial value and were under the forest department’s control. Winning the right to manage these resources meant economic liberation to the two villages.
EIA Legislation
Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006 The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) notified the new EIA Notification in September 2006 after putting up the draft notification for public comment for a year.
Billed to confuse
A new bill leaves little scope for dissent on GMOs by Savvy Soumya Mishra If the nationwide furore over Bt brinjal was driven by the fear of unsafe food being pushed down the throat, the proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) bill goes a step further to silence all opposition. The bill will bring about changes in regulating the research, transport, import, manufacture and use of genetically modified (GM) products in the country.