women working in mining or stone crushing units often give opium to their infants to keep them quiet while they are working.
JAIPUR: A report prepared by a few NGOs on child labour in Rajasthan has claimed that women working in mining or stone crushing units often give opium to their infants to keep them quiet while they are working.

Geneva: The EU-India FTA could be disastrous for the farm sector in India, if the demands of the EU negotiators would be accepted, according to a joint study by NGOs Misereror, Glopolis, the Heinrich Boll foundation and the Third World Network (TWN). The report pionts out that it would violate the right to food of a vast segment in India which rely on the poultry and dairy sectors. Opponents of the EU demands see losses for the Indian economy- particularly in retail and agriculture. It is contrary to WTO rules, which advocate lower tariffs rather than removing them.

As the city’s wetlands struggle for survival due to persistent construction activity and water pollution, a bunch of nature enthusiasts are hoping to transform some of these lesser known sanctuaries of tranquility into tourist spots. Recently, environmentalists organised walks along several coastal and mangrove areas in Sewri, Bandra, Andheri, Bhandup and Dahisar to sensitise nature lovers and the government to start an initiative to protect and promote the wetlands as tourist spots, instead of letting them fall into the hands of encroachers.

In a city starkly divided between munificent high rises and voluminous slum pockets, disparity in living conditions of Mumbaikars glares starkly at ones face.
While on one hand, aristocrats while away litres and litres of water supplied by the civic body washing away their cars and bathing their dogs, activists inform that, more than twenty lakh people in slums of Mumbai have to pay through their nose to gain equitable access to this quintessential commodity.

IMPHAL, Feb 7 – Manipur- based Centre for Research on Environmental Development (CRED), an NGO, has been awarded the Green Globe Foundation award 2012 for outstanding contribution at the grass root level critical issues of environment degradation besides generating mass awareness on pollution related issues. The award was handed over to the representatives of the CRED at an award distribution ceremony at Taj Palace in New Delhi on February 2.

Finally it is victory for environmentalists, especially for Dharwad-based NGO Samaja Parivartana Samudaya, which questioned the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education's (ICFRE) suggestion to exploit mining reserves in the Western Ghats.

The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) in its report submitted to the court on February 3 rejected the suggestion by noting that “ICFRE has gone totally out of context and beyond its terms of reference.”

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Medical Council of India on a petition seeking judicial intervention into allegations of clinical trials of untested drugs being conducted on patients, mostly poor, without taking their prior “informed” consent. A PIL taken up before a Bench of Justices R M Lodha and H L Gokhale said these drug tests are prevalent because laws are not being implemented strictly by the government and its agencies, providing pharma companies with a loophole.

Crusade for revival of environment and wildlife ( CREW) will organise the Central Indian Highlands Wildlife Film Festival on the theme " Tiger Habitat" at the end of February. The idea is to showcase Satpura- Maikal ranges to build a national- level campaign among students and youth and create greater awareness about nature and wildlife, which is so crucial for survival of humankind.

Girish Sant, founder of NGO Prayas, a policy advocacy group in the power sector, died of a heart attack in a hotel in New Delhi on Thursday. He was 46.
Sant completed his BTech in chemical engineering from IIT-Bombay in 1986, followed by a Master’s degree in energy systems engineering in 1988. But instead of pursuing a corporate career like most other IIT graduates, `Bandya’, as he was known to friends, chose to become an analyst in public policy. Prayas was a think tank that contributed greatly to the debate on power sector policy.

MUMBAI: The government has been abandoning people in M-East ward with the same indifference and insouciance as it has been depositing rubbish there for years. Waves of people displaced from different parts of the city for MUTP, MUIP and Brimstowad projects have been rehoused in the ward since 2004. But a significant increase in the civic amenities here has not been deigned important.