Feature Article

The farmers in the evacuation zone around Fukushima who refused to leave are trying to reduce radiation levels.

One of the less-noted consequences of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima is the effect on carbon dioxide emissions. Two of the world's six largest emitters are switching off their nuclear power stations, leaving them needing to source energy from elsewhere.

The crisis that unfolded at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after Japan's megaquake and tsunami is rewriting the nuclear safety guide. There are some positives. Despite being shaken by an earthquake that exceeded the worst case assumed in their design, the reactors along Japan's Pacific coast suffered no serious damage from the ground movement.

Cyclical rise and fall of monthly mean CO2 concentration occurred rather regularly at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, USA, during 1958–2008, with peaks occurring in April or May followed by troughs in September or October. However, the frequency of troughs in September increased from 32% in 1958–1974 to 82% in 1992–2008 and the depletion season correspondingly decreased from 4.8 months on average to 4.2 months. Does this seemingly small change in the seasonal rhythm point to changes on an inter-decadal scale in the CO2 accumulation rates?

Drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum parasite poses a great problem for the malaria control programme of any country. The most commonly used antimalarial drugs, viz. chloroquine (CQ) and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) have been rendered ineffective and
are replaced by the artesunate-based combination therapy (ACT).

In India, for food security, the future agriculture faces the challenge of enhancing crop production under uncertain climatic extremes, in a limited (or degraded at many places) land area, with more and more requirement of water (in many places, poor quality water), complexities and rapid erosion of natural biodiversity and agricultural systems, and the socio-economic systems governing

River Saraswati is believed to have flown through the Thar Desert, as reconstructed by several experts based on critical data gathered by them. A careful observation of the channel shows that in most of the places these are fault-controlled. Studies of palaeochannels in many parts of the world proved successful in identifying high-yielding freshwater zones. Presence of fault system accelerates the recharge process and down-flow of water gets maximized through fault planes during the wet period.

Malaria is an ancient disease in India. Known as the ‘king of diseases’, malaria was estimated to cause 75 million cases and 0.8 million deaths annually. In epidemic years, morbidity and mortality used to increase 2–3 times. Ravages of malaria were so rampant and devastating, that the economic growth of the country remained paralysed.

Dengue is one of the most important mosquito-borne viral diseases in the world, and is endemic in approximately 120 countries. It has been estimated that there are 50–100 million cases of dengue fever and 3.6 billion people are at risk of infection. It is emerging and re-emerging in the tropics and currently poses the most significant arboviral threat to humans.

Amartya Sen’s felicitous metaphor which celebrated an aspect of an open middle class Indian society has been harshly disproved by no less a person than the mild-mannered Manmohan Singh when he followed the practice of Indira Gandhi in seeing a “foreign hand” behind democratic opposition. Even when the prime minister trumpeted that United States (US) and Scandinavian non-governmental organisations were behind the Koodan kulam people’s agitation against a nuclear facility, a seminar was held in Delhi