Butterfly wings to the aid of glaucoma patients
INSPIRED by tiny structures on transparent butterfly wings, scientists have developed a light-manipulating surface for more effective and longer-lasting eye implants for glaucoma patients. Researchers
Frontline (Chennai)
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Now, the next step
Interview with Anil Kakodkar, AEC Chairman. Anil Kakodkar: "There is no chance of stoppage of reactors because the stockpile will be available."
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The real agenda
If the Congress propaganda in 2004 is given any credence, then the party has deviated significantly from its original commitment. At the release of the National Common Minimum Programme in May 2004 by UPA partners and the Left.
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Cultivating farmers
Corporate retail giants are quietly consolidating their position even in politically sensitive States such as Kerala.
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Energy drive
France, as the next head of the E.U., faces the challenge of adopting clean fuel and finding new energy sources. An overhead network of gas pipelines at a refuelling terminal in Lille. Almost 100,000 tonnes of local organic waste is treated annually to produce biogas which is used to run 75 per cent of the city's public buses.
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In the rice bowl
At Kuttanad, harvested paddy being packed in gunnybags. A file picture. Reliance's attempt to reach an agreement with the Kuttanad Development Society to buy its entire paddy harvest failed, apparently over the price. ONE of the most sensitive initiatives by Reliance Retail since its foray into the farm sector in Kerala in June 2007 was its attempt to procure rice from Kuttanad in Alappuzha district, where farmers have been in distress for long because of falling prices, labour shortage, high cost of inputs, shrinking area under cultivation, opposition to mechanisation, and high wages.
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Political price
LONG before the fuel price increase was announced on June 4, its political dimensions had come up time and again in discussions among partners of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre. The debate was on even during the run-up to the Assembly elections in Karnataka, which were held in May. The discussions highlighted the global increase in the price of crude oil and the demand from oil companies for governmental measures to tide them over.
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Speculative bubble
Just as in the case of major foodgrains, deregulation of financial markets has had a significant role in affecting global oil prices. JAY MALLIN/BLOOMBERG NEWS The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee of the United States hearing testimony on whether speculation in the commodities market by institutional investors and hedge funds is contributing to food and energy price surges, in Washington, D.C., on May 20.
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Burden on States
The oil price hike burdens already strained State finances and threatens to jeopardise welfare programmes run by State governments. THE Union government's decision to raise the prices of petroleum products has placed State governments in a quandary. While taxes on petroleum products constitute a significant proportion of a State's revenue, a reduction of these taxes could undermine the State's fiscal balance.
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A suitable strategy
As the neoliberal edifice crumbles in the face of rising prices, a rationing regime becomes the only way of protecting the poor from their impact. Murli Deora, Petroleum Minister, and P. Chidambaram, Finance Minister, at a function in New Delhi.
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Fudging facts
The problems in petroleum pricing stem from a flawed method, and will cause immense harm to the oil companies and endanger energy security. A DEBATE without data would be a meaningless exercise. But a debate with faulty or fudged data would be positively dangerous. The prolonged national "debate' over the need to increase petroleum product prices is exactly that. One of the most important arguments of the government was that the move was urgently needed to stem the bleeding losses of the publicly owned oil companies.