Reports

An official study that was meant to look at the way environmental clearances in Karnataka were given out in the last 10 years has turned out to be a virtual indictment of the entire process itself. There is not a single project which has got the top two grades in the rankings that were compiled by the Environmental Management and Policy Research Institute (EMPRI), an autonomous body established by the state government. The damning study, which was conducted by EMPRI researchers and three...

The Supreme Court’s directive to the Centre to set up a National Environmental Appraisal and Monitoring Authority and related state-level bodies is yet to take shape, but the Karnataka government has already jumped the gun. The state government has discontinued the State Environment Clearance Committee (SECC). This was by order FEE 19 ENV 2013 dated February 7, 2014. Practically no one outside even knows about the decision that was carried out in a manner that is being described by critics as...

More news of the dam-scam of Karnataka still keeps trickling out. The latest to leak out from the weirs of secrecy and dubiousness is that of one single dam in Gulbarga district which is masquerading as two distinct small hydel projects (SHEPs). On paper, the 24.75 MW Mouneswar Small Hydel Project and the 24.75 MW Basavanna Hydro Project are discrete and unconnected projects on the Krishna river. The two projects have separately applied for credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of...

Climate change research is set to receive a boost with the Royal Norwegian Embassy giving a grant of Rs 14 crore to city-based environment research institute and think-tank, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). ATREE is also to get a Rs 5 crore corpus from philanthropist Rohini Nilekani. “The infusion of new resources will enhance ATREE’s work on climate change, biodiversity conservation, and environmental governance and policies,” said Kamal Bawa, ATREE president...

It's not just the spectre of developing cancer itself which is scary for India; it's state of cancer care in the country that is more ominous. And there are reasons to feel scared, outlines a major study on cancer care in India that is being released on Saturday. One of the reasons for the excessive burden of deaths from cancer in India is the existence of huge gaps between the demand and supply for cancer care: 95 per cent of the medical colleges in India do not have comprehensive cancer care...

Hi-tech times call for hi-tech solutions. That's the impression one would get from Bosch's innovations that are geared towards minimising road accidents in the country. Its Smart Emergency Crash Notification (sECN) app can provide rapid assistance to motorists involved in collisions. The company is also working on its Bosch Accident Research Project to collate and analyse accident data. That's because official statistics in India are not sufficient enough for analyses of traffic safety-related...

The Global Decade for Road Safety is in its fifth year, but things remain as dismal and bloody they were. Experts believe that the focus needs a paradigm shift from 'what can be done' to 'who ought to do what' for things to change. With some 15 agencies/departments/ministries being involved in the process for instance in a place like Karnataka, the time has come for a wholesome sectoral and planning integration. The need of the hour is one of evidence-driven approaches, says G Gururaj of NIMHANs...

There are many reasons why Bangalore remains the startup capital of India. And one of those is that the young here are workaholics, and the lines between their personal and professional lives are blurring fast. Market expansion advisory firm Zinnov has come up with numbers that, the organisation contends, point to this trend. About 49 per cent of respondents to a recent Zinnov study in the 21-30 age bracket use tablets for work. This is reckoned to be signify a younger generation that is leaning...

Flouting of environmental norms and forest laws in the construction of irrigation projects in Karnataka are now going the mini-hydel projects way. The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) is organising a public hearing for this irrigation scheme long after the project was completed for all practical purposes. And that too without an environment clearance from the Centre. It's not as complicated as it may sound. Proponents of any project of a particular scale are supposed to start work...

Flu's getting scarier by the day. Three-quarters of people infected with seasonal flu and swine flu in recent years have shown no symptoms. In other words, in today's world you might be down with influenza till the end, but show no symptom of it. In any case, for instance, not everyone with flu will have fever. Researchers analysed data gathered in England during the winter flu seasons between 2006 and 2011, including the 2009 H1N1 "swine flu" pandemic, and found that one in five of the...