The power game
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have become increasingly influential in the past 50 years. Awareness of human rights and social and …
DIRTY SEX
Every 10 years, the census of India comes out with a damning statistic: the country's abysmal female-male ratio. As per the 2001 census, there …
Empowered panchayats make for true liberalisation
A myth actively perpetuated by traditional politicians and a supportive bureauracy is that panchayat bodies are India's lowest ranked …
Labour vs pollution
Ever since the Supreme Court (sc) ordered closure/relocation of polluting units in Delhi, which subsequently left nearly 50,000 people jobless,…
"Polluters are today's environmentalists"
Crusader for the rights of over eight million Indian fisherfolk, Thomas Kochery , 57, made news headlines when he rejected the US $150,000 …
‘EIAs of mining projects have become a farce’
Christopher Albin-Lackey, senior researcher with New York-based non-profit Human Rights Watch (HRW), has documented the large-scale environmental …
Investment terror
Since the 1990s developing nations have been on a treaty spree, signing a vast number of bilateral and regional investment treaties to attract …
In search of the missing
In the undivided Koraput district of Orissa, there exist 190 villages that have slowly been pushed off the map of India. Hurled by fast-track …
'We need to promote the culture of donating breast milk'
Armida Fernandez, founder trustee of Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action, started the first human milk bank in India in 1989 in …
'Elephant conservation is not exactly anybody’s priority'
M D Madhusudan is an ecologist and conservationist with Nature Conservation Foundation in Mysore, Karnataka. An elephant expert, he is a member …
On privatising water
What about privatising water? Should India move to do it? What tips the scales in its favour, and what doesn't? In 2003, two editorials in Down …
The many ways of GM contamination
Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist in the food and environment programme at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), is among the most …
Desperately seeking skills & jobs
India has a youth bulge in its population, accounting for the largest number of young working age people in the world. This demographic …
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 …
Wild Emergency: From sensational to sensible
The National Board of Wildlife’s recommendation that state governments use Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code while dealing with …
What's the best way to go to the toilet – squatting or sitting?
Pauline Hanson’s concern about the ATO installing squat toilets to cater for its increasingly diverse workforce has prompted debate about …
A tiger’s tale
Avni, the Yavatmal tigress, died because she was caught in the crossfire of people's expectations from the government and the pretence …
New, more virulent HIV strain reported in the Netherlands 40 years after pandemic began
The new HIV variant is a cause for concern since these are figures for a country with high awareness about and monitoring of the disease
HIV-related stigma, discrimination persists in work world, reveals global survey
Less than half of people surveyed in India said people living with HIV should be allowed to work directly with people who do not have HIV
India’s wildlife needs its people’s empathy, not just sympathy
The trend of shooting animals declared as ‘man eaters’ is taking a toll on our wildlife, our precious natural heritage
Scientists have created synthetic human embryos. Now we must consider the ethical and moral quandaries
This development, widely described as a breakthrough that could help scientists learn more about human development and genetic disorders
Elephant in the room: Human-animal conflicts kill 1,401 people, 301 jumbos in 3 years in India
State governments as well as the Union environment ministry had taken various steps to mitigate human-elephant conflict, according to Union …