Today's Headlines

28.04.2008 Despite being one of the most environmentally vigilant nations, Bhutan faces threat of disastrous floods owing to glacial melting. The Himalayan kingdom, where sustainable development forms the core of public policy goals, is at the receiving end due to the damage caused by countries like China and India.

28.04.2008 Continuing food crisis in Afghanistan is frustrating people. Several cities are witnessing instances of protests, riots and looting. While people blame government for this crisis, experts attribute it to both local and global factors. The country would need over half-a-million tonnes of wheat to be imported to meet the current demand.

28.04.2008 Nepal Maoists owe their impressive performance to marginalised communities in the recently held elections for Constituent Assembly. It is now up to the former rebels to prove themselves and see how they can come up to the expectations of these people whose interests nobody in the past bothered to address.

25.04.2008 The answer to growing traffic and pollution in the Indian capital lies in an effective and massive public transport system, says the Centre for Science and Environment. The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, recently implemented in south Delhi, provides the option for an economically sound and better bus system.

25.04.2008 On World Malaria Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is due to announce a global initiative to fight against the vector-borne disease that kills a million people around the world every year. In India, malaria is spreading to newer areas owing largely to a changing climate.

24.04.2008 Even as UNESCO’s latest report pans India for lagging behind in the race for achieving education for all by 2015, experts gathered in the capital weigh up the nationally sponsored Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Exclusion and discrimination remain core challenges as millions of children remain outside its fold, is the verdict.

24.04.2008 A new international study says there is need for more agricultural research to be able to produce more in a sustainable manner. The study however cautions against excessive optimism about transgenic crops, as their potential environmental and health risks are yet unknown.

24.04.2008 New research predicts a rise in sea levels three times higher than that estimated by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year. These findings, based on a model following accurate reconstruction of sea levels over past two millennia, were presented at a European Geosciences Union conference in Austria recently.

23.04.2008 The UN food agency has alerted Pakistan against a possible attack of Ug99 on wheat crops. Even as officials from the country have denied its presence, there are fears that winds from Iran and Balochistan may blow in the black stem rust, leading to widespread crop loss in South Asia.

23.04.2008 Expectations of bumper rice crop in Bangladesh may be good news for Bangladeshis. However, the UN food agency feels that it may not be enough to pull the country out of the present food crisis, where half of the population lives below the poverty line.