Opinions

United States President Barack Obama says he needs to know whose ass he should kick in the case of the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He wants those responsible to pay for the damage — to the people and the environment. The victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy will tell you that they know who is responsible.

1411 tigers left. So says the latest advertisement campaign of a new telecom company and the wwf. It is powerful. It plays to our emotions. But it does not tell us what is being done, or should be done. It does not tell us how we, the consuming classes, can be part of the solution to safeguard the tiger.

This new short film highlights plight of the Maldives, one of the world's most vulnerable countries to sea level rise. Produced by TVEAP in collaboration with COM+ Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development, it is based on an exclusive interview with President Nasheed of Maldives.

THE INTERNATIONAL LAW OF THE SEA by O P Sharma, Oxford University Press, Rs 795 The law of the sea has undergone more changes in the last 60 years than in the past 100. This book deals with some of the changes.

On India Meteorological Department using statistical models instead of dynamical ones for forecasting Tell me which dynamical model has given correct forecasts for India? The forecasts for Indian monsoons given by the US, UK and Europe in April this year (using dynamical models) threw up different predictions. None of them could predict monsoons would be so low. But the India Meteorological

back in the 20th century, when nation-building was not a foul term and public-private partnership was not a keyword, children grew up with the ideal of becoming doctors and engineers. Medicine was a noble profession. With changing times, commerce has become more reliable as an instrument of healthcare than nobility; medical insurance sounds more reasonable than the Hippocratic oath. But the

There has been an animated debate in the past three years over the supply of food in the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) programme. Supplementary nutrition has been provided to all children under the age of six since the inception of the programme more than three decades ago. This was done with the recognition that the nutrition gap (between what children should be

The ICDS programme launched in the 1970s was based on the results of extensive surveys which identified rampant child under-nutrition in India. Using the weight-for-age and height-for-age criteria, only 10 per cent children under five could be classified normal. And 15-20 per cent were underweight even when they were short. The situation has not improved in the past 35 years despite

Book>> Beyond Relocation, The Imperative of Sustainable Resettlement • Edited by Renu Modi • Sage • Rs 850 For the past two decades, the Indian civil society has been demanding a resettlement policy for people displaced by development projects. Rehabilitation is a bugbear of policy makers and civil servants. Many in the government are torn between the imperatives of ensuring economic

Book>> False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World • by Allan Beattie • Penguin • Indian Price Rs 450 The subtitle of Allan Beattie’s book promises a surprising economic history of the world. And the former World Trade editor of Financial Times tries too hard to keep up to it. Right at the beginning of False Economy he plays a prank on the reader. He asks: what