'Censuses mean little'
A POPULATION expert sharply critical of India's achievements in curbing population growth. A demographer with scant respect for the census. A …
"The DANGER to FORESTS is not over"
The subsidiary bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN FCCC) met from June 2-12 1998 in Bonn, Germany. A good …
'Poor nations need Codex education'
Sanjay Dave, director of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), was recently elected chairperson of …
Vaccine Eloquent
Universal vaccination became part of government policy in 1978. A quarter of a century since, progress has been fitful. In some parts of the …
Peta's Pet
UK-based animal welfare group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals has been campaigning against Indian leather, alleging ill-treatment of …
Cancun clinches deal—for polluters
Cancun has restored the sanctity of multilateral negotiations under the UN climate convention. People had lost faith in it by the end of the …
Solving poverty
Gurdev S Khush is the principal plant breeder in the Plant breeding, genetics and biochemistry division of the International Rice Research …
Everybody's a Loser
The World Trade Organization's recent ministerial meet in Seattle, USA, will be remembered more for the protestors who turned the venue into a …
Newest Biggest Deal
In Kyoto, in 1997, nations of the world agreed the Clean Development Mechanism (cdm) was a competent way to combat climate change. The process …
Frozen at gateway
The Doha outcome is all talk no action. In 2007, the Bali Action Plan had called for an urgent reduction in carbon emissions by developed …
Manipulating Research
Private funding has given a new meaning to scientific research today. With rising corporate research budgets, academic institutions are leaning …
Clash of the cyberworlds
In an increasingly digital world, the issue of Internet freedom and governance has become hugely contested. Censorship and denial of access occur …
Time-out
The 17th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Durban in December 2011. Negotiations were heated and …
Future shock
As the world continues to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the global temperatures could rise by 3°C by mid-century, says a soon-to-…
Sunshine sector loses sheen
About 40 kilometres from Delhi, in the bustling real estate market of Noida-Greater Noida, lies the biggest irony that the renewable energy …
Future compromised
The Earth Summit was a historical opportunity to set the world on the correct development trajectory. Negotiators from 191 countries came …
Secretive tribunals, hidden damages
Canadian academic Gus Van Harten is well known for his efforts to reform the global investment treaty regime through his research papers, …
India’s many investment treaties make it vulnerable
Senior international lawyer Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, who heads the investment programme of the International Institute on Sustainable …