Feature Article

ON SEPTEMBER 9, the Supreme Court ordered detergent company Nirma to file its reply to the show cause notice issued by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) within three months.

Monitoring of tiger populations is done at regular intervals of four years and is a crucial component of evaluating the efficacy of tiger conservation efforts. The
Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India (GoI) published a booklet containing the results of the All-India Tiger Estimation

The Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, organized a seminar on 29 August 2011. The speaker was M. V. Ramana, who is currently with the Nuclear Futures Laboratory and Program on Science and Global Security at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International
Affairs, Princeton University, USA. He studies the future of nuclear energy against the backdrop of climate change and nuclear disarmament, and is presently
completing a book on nuclear power in India.

Lichens are a major section of species that are sensitive to changes in atmospheric nutrient conditions and have been used as bioindicators of pollution
over a long period of time, especially sulphur dioxide (SO2). A study was undertaken during July 2010 to understand the epiphytic lichen diversity of Guwahati city.(Correspondence)

Malaria is a disease that has been with us for all of human history. Malarial parasites are known to infect all terrestrial vertebrates. They are notable for their ability to survive and develop in the environment of vectors that transmit them from host to host, spreading disease. (Editorial)

Earlier this year, ozone loss over the Arctic was on a scale comparable to that over the Antarctic.

Unlike the rest of the subcontinent, Assam retained many elements of its tribal economy well into the 19th century. With the British invasion the picture began to change gradually. Opening up of the Brahmaputra Valley in 1826 brought about two major changes in the mode of surplus extraction. One, colonial capital flowed into tea plantations, along with indentured labourers from mainland India. Though immensely profitable for the planters, this had a limited impact on the larger peasant economy of Assam.

The 2011 Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill on land acquisition recently tabled in Parliament is well-intentioned but seriously flawed. Its principal defect is that it attaches an arbitrary mark-up to the historical market price to determine compensation amounts. This will guarantee neither social justice nor the efficient use of resources.

The proposed legislation for regulation of the for-profit microfinance sector has a number of problems. It makes the Reserve Bank of India the sole regulator of the sector when this is the domain of the states rather than the central bank. The proposal will permit a back-door entry for the MFIs to collect savings which is not a healthy idea. Any proposal should be drawn on the experience of the states and the for-profit MFIs should be regulated as moneylenders.