Feature Article

Rice is a staple food of a large majority of the people of Jammu & Kashmir. Being a predominantly hill state, the area is mostly sloppy & undulating, rain fed coupled with erratic weather. However out of 15027 thousand quintals of total foodgrain production in the state, 30.49 per cent comes from rice (2004-05).

In this paper an attempt has been made to analyse the extent and use of drip and sprinkler irrigation methods on the basis of the information provided by the Minor Irrigation Censuses conducted by the M/o Water Resources.

This paper looks at how Nike's soccer ball suppliers (previous and current) in Sialkot (Pakistan) fare in relation to the company's code of ethics. While minimum required working conditions are implemented, the criteria for social and environmental compliance are not met with. The multinational's decision to withdraw orders from the previous supplier ostensibly due to allegations of child labour and unauthorised subcontracting hit large sections of the workforce, especially rural, low-skilled and female workers.

The decline of the political significance of industrial conflicts is not quite a result of the structural changes in management-labour relations (as commonly thought) in these times of globalisation. It is more a consequence of the lack of an appropriate agency and politics among the working classes, despite their increasing incompatibilities with globalising capitalism. A set of case studies of manufacturing industries in Bangalore illustrates this point.

This is apropos "Savage War for

"IF THE best way to create the future is to invent it, we say the second-best way is to finance it." John Doerr is only half joking. He is one of the most influential venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, and he knows a thing or two about financing the future. But ask him what he's focused on now and you won't hear venture-capital buzz-phrases such as "Web 2.0". These days, Doerr is firmly focused on clean technology - and in particular, energy technologies that can save the planet from global warming.

Anyone clinging to the notion that we can wipe the slate clean of all our climate mistakes by deflecting the sun's rays with space mirrors is in for a disappointment. Dan Lunt of the University of Bristol, UK, and colleagues carried out the most detailed climate-modelling study to date on the impact of a sunshade.

Here's another reason to ensure your home is lead-free. Exposure to the toxic element during development makes people more likely to get into trouble with the law as adults.

Indonesia and Malaysia have long denied that their tropical forests are being burned to make way for lucrative palm oil plantations. It seems they've been lying through their teeth. Between 1990 and 2005 palm plantations rocketed by 1.87 million hectares in Malaysia and by more than 3 million hectares in Indonesia.

Fat: what is it good for? Absolutely nothing, or so you might think. But obesity seems to protect mice against a fatal form of malaria. Working out how it has this effect might lead to new treatments for people.