New Delhi: Have environment clearances become an impediment to setting up power projects in the country? Data submitted by environment and forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan to the Lok Sabha on Monday suggests otherwise. In the last three years, the environment ministry rejected environmental clearances to only two power projects.

Labels on packaged foods may not always carry totally correct information, finds
Saheli Mitra

Do you know that a packet of instant noodles has over 60 per cent of your recommended daily salt intake or that a Happy Meal contains 90 per cent of your child's daily requirement of trans fats? Consumers are usually unaware of such facts since most companies in India don't bother to put such information on their labels. But a consumer has the right to know all these facts so that he or she can make an informed choice.

Cities in India are dreaming of becoming New York and London but we seldom worry about as basic an issue as sewage and its disposal in our country. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has brought out a two-volume book titled Excreta Matters: Report on the State of India’s Environment to highlight how only 20 per cent of sewage is being treated in the country. Sunita Narain, director general, CSE, talks about the murky issue plaguing the water sources in this interview to Rashme Sehgal.

India, to put it euphemistically, is awash in its own ‘crap’ — a word derived from old Dutch to mean excrement. While accurate to an alarming degree, coming soon after the euphoria over the Agni missile tests, the discomfiture is evident.

It is not in the interest of food companies to advertise what their products contain, but it is in our interest to know

Junk food is junk by its very definition. But how bad is it and what is it that companies do not tell people about this food? This is what the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) laboratory checked. The results were both predictable and alarming. Equally predictable was the response of big food companies and their spokespersons — denials and dismissals. But they are missing the point.

Amritsar: New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) releasing negative results in March after testing 16 major food brands, including Nestle's Maggi noodles, McDonald's, KFC, Haldiram's aloo bhujia and PepsiCo's Lays potato chips, has not resulted in any decline in the footfall at junk food outlets nor there is any impact on the sale of food products in the city.

The CSE in its study had claimed these products of these brands contain high level of harmful trans-fats, salts and sugar, which can lead to diseases like obesity and diabetes.

Gurgaon, India’s aspiring lower Manhattan, may soon end up with no water, but overflowing sewage.

In 2006, the water level in Gurgaon had fallen to 51 metre below ground level. And if the water table plunges to 200 metre, the industrial and upscale residential township would be left with nothing but dry rocks, the Central Groundwater Board has projected.

A recent analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), however, suggests that this might happen sooner than later.

‘Excreta Matters’

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which took up cudgels against the health hazards due to junk food has hailed the UP governments decision to put an immediate ban on its sale within the premises and outside ICSE, CBSE and UP Board schools. “It is a significant and laudable step towards protecting our children from future health impairments,” pointed Director of CSE Sunita Narain while hailing the UP government’s decision to ban the sale of junk food and carbonated soft drinks on the school campuses and outside.

If BRT corridor was meant to be a panacea for the never ending traffic woes and ever increasing automobile pollution of the national Capital, it failed in its objective. The idling time at the Chirag Dilli intersection on BRT corridor is double the time vehicles spend idling at ITO, perceived to be busiest intersection of the city.