What triggers desertification in India
A low down on the most important causes behind desertification in every state of the country. Addressing these will be critical to meet targets …
A reliable HIV self-test
Nitika Pant Pai, assistant professor at the department of medicine, McGill University, Canada, and her team have analysed data on acceptability …
Ways to budge Karzai
Advertisement>> National Policy • Afghanistan/US
Reversing food cycle
Processed and packaged food and sweetened beverages have become a part of our life. They have replaced traditional and fresh foods. Food companies,…
`Growing food is like printing your own money'
Ron Finley grows food and for this he has been branded as a guerilla gardener, a renegede, an ecolutionist. It all began four years ago, when Ron,…
‘How can India be a defendant, and not a claimant in the Bhopal case’
Union law minister, Veerappa Moily, on October 27, announced the government will not pursue the ongoing lawsuit in the US for compensating Bhopal …
`We've strong evidence that eating sugar contributes to heart disease'
Kimber Stanhope, nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis, US, is studying the health effects of fructose, a component of …
Southeast US will bear the worst of this year’s winter, says AccuWeather
This US-based independent weather agency set off gasps of dread and many counter-forecasts last week when it indicated “the return” …
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 …
Vitamin D complex
When sunlight falls on the skin, it forms an essential nutrient, vitamin D. For people in India, which has an average of 300 clear sunny days in …
Elementary failure
Since the Right To Education Act came into force on April 1, 2010, India has been witnessing an experiment that involves parents in enforcing a …
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 …
Battle for the Internet
As the Internet becomes the public square and the marketplace of our world, it is increasingly becoming a contested terrain. Its potential for …
Soon, an early warning system for cyclones and floods
Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) for Africa and Asia was put in place soon after the 2004 tsunami hit the Indian …
'Most countries don’t want to recognise indigenous people as people'
Mohammed Taghi Farvar, former director of Avicenna University in Iran, is a well-known ecologist and social scientist. At present, he is the …
Universal health scare
The country’s planners are debating how to provide healthcare to all. In a drastic shift from the 65-year-old public health system, the …
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 …
Troubled Beautiful Minds
They are there—each residential area has its mentally disturbed people; each family has anecdotes of crazy relatives. Nobody wants 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 …
Kenya takes over the presidency of the UN Security Council, but must work hard to influence the agenda
The presidency of the Council affords Kenya some, albeit limited, scope to shape the Council’s agenda
It was a myth so far
Big Bang created the universe. In its afterglow, scientists find proof of dark matters presence
Monkeypox: demand for vaccines is outstripping supply – this is what’s causing the shortages
Vaccines currently being administered are from emergency stockpiles for accidental or deliberate release of smallpox