While the state boasts of many achievements on various fronts, it appeared to have been fighting a losing battle in maintaining a healthy male-female sex ratio, as the figures for the last three years indicate a big fall in the number of girl children born in the state. Read more »
India is slated to purchase up to six of these reactors, of which the first two alone carry an estimated price tag of €11 billion. A memorandum of understanding for the sale of two EPRs was signed in 2009 and there are chances that a framework agreement will be signed during French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s working visit to India which began on December 4. Read more »
The government’s offer at the United Nations Climate Change Conference at Cancun – to submit India to international measurement, review and verification – makes for a welcome change after Japan’s decision last week not to extend the Kyoto Protocol. The only international treaty obliging rich countries to cut their emissions, Kyoto is not perfect. But it was a start to tackling a global problem. Read more »
Chhattisgarh is set to become the largest producer of thermal power, cement and sponge iron. The push is on to install 77 per cent of India’s current thermal power capacity, 51 per cent of the country’s present cement capacity and 31 million tonnes of sponge iron capacity, which is equal to India’s current capacity. The price of this fast-track industrialisation will be forests, agricultural land and the state’s 32 per cent tribal population. Does the country have a method to assess the cumulative impact of this crowded industrialisation? Read more »
On the first day of the 16th annual climate change conference that began in Cancun on Monday, it became clear that the countries had made little progress from the failed previous meet in Copenhagen, but had actually moved backwards on certain issues. The opening day of the two-week conference saw countries restating their old positions and bickering on how to take the troubled talks forward. Read more »
In 2009, Mumbai had 1,623 HIV-TB co-infected patients; of these, 541 were initiated on anti-retroviral therapy (ART). It’s believed that better access to ART has improved the TB infection rates among such patients. Amid reports of the HIV epidemic slowing down worldwide, city administrators believe they are witnessing another healthy change: A grip on the deadly co-infection of HIV and tuberculosis (TB). Read more »
No scheme of the Indian government has evoked as much controversy in recent years as the creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for industry aimed at exports. This has resulted in the displacement of poor farm families and villagers, brutal land acquisition, and gross human rights violations by the state at the behest of private capital. In addition, there is the economic infeasibility of the plan, which is not discussed as much. When the economic arguments are deconstructed, it becomes evident that SEZs are nothing but a manifestation of the state’s genuflection to private capital. The scheme is further invalidated when one observes the resistance to SEZs—resistance that has come in a variety of political hues and streams. Read more »
The order of the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court squashing and setting aside the land allotment to developers of seven designated Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the state has put the brakes, temporarily or not, on unplanned and mindless industrialisation. As of now the Goa Industrial Development Corporation has four months to make fresh allotments and if this is not done then the GIDC can take possession of the land. Read more »
