Karnataka is set to copy Gujarat by making voting compulsory through a carrot-and-stick approach. It proposes to levy penalties for not voting, and incentivize voting by providing rewards. A senior official in the rural development and panchayat raj ministry said the state government has floated the idea of making voting mandatory in panchayat elections with a tentative fine of up to Rs 500 or two-day imprisonment for those who don’t […]

Yeli Village: A once-barren bank of the Ye river in central China now has 12,000 trees thanks to unlikely but dedicated gardeners: two friends, one blind and one without arms. The story of Jia Wenqi, 53, with no arms, and his blind friend, Jia Haixia, 54, is one of perseverance, environmental awakening and of finding a path in a country where it is difficult for the disabled to find jobs. […]

                              There has been widespread appreciation of India’s prompt relief measures to Nepal devastated by the deadly earthquake on April 25. While aid has poured in from across the world, India’s effort stands out and can be best encapsulated in the words of the Nepali Ambassador designate to India, Deep Kumar Upadhyay, “India has been prompt […]

PUNE: Packaged drinking water may not always be your safest bet, going by a random survey conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA drew 95 water samples from packaged drinking water plants across the state from April 2014 to March 2015 and found 53% of them unsafe and substandard. In Pune region, 11 of the 31 samples were found unsafe. While criminal cases have been filed against […]

  Nepal: Heritage Lost To Nature’s Forces Nepal is still grappling to come to terms with Saturday’s devastating quake and the gruesome aftershocks that continued till Sunday. As the death toll continues to rise and grieving family members try to come to terms with this inexplicable loss, there is one loss which perhaps has no hope of resurrection or restoration. Yes I mean the architectural legacy of Nepal that succumbed […]

The state of New York is to turn off non-essential lights in state-run buildings to help birds navigate their migratory routes in spring and autumn. Migrating birds are believed to use stars to navigate but they can be disorientated by electric lights, causing them to crash into buildings. The phenomenon, known as “fatal light attraction”, is estimated to kill up to one billion birds a year in the US. Millions […]

LONDON: There is still time to save lives — that’s why governments and aid agencies on Sunday rushed doctors, volunteers and equipment to Nepal without waiting for the dust to settle.   UN spokeswoman Orla Fagan, who is heading to Nepal, said preventing the spread of disease is one of the most important tasks facing aid workers who are arriving.   “There are 14 international medical teams on the way […]

                                                                                It is day two after Saturday’s devastating earthquake crippled normal life across Nepal. Measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale and with more than 1800 people dead, it was the worst […]

NEW DELHI: Moti Nagar’s Sudarshan Park area is a hub of illegal fan-making factories. Almost every second house has a factory operating from it and all have managed to evade the eye of authorities who are now busy passing the buck. Balmiki Mohalla, where the incident happened, has at least 10 big factories. They are all on the ground floor while families live in the upper storeys. These factories have […]

Every year, the planet loses nearly a third of its food—a staggering 1.4 billion tons. That’s according to a 2011 United Nations study that assessed food networks in 152 countries. The researchers’ results reveal where in the food-supply chain farmers, engineers, and consumers might more effectively get comestibles into mouths. What to do about it The planet may have to feed a global population of 10 billion people by 2050. […]