Think rail, use buses. This appears to be the perfect solution for India's overcrowded cities seeking cheaper and more efficient public transport systems. What it entails is a bus system that operates like a suburban rail line service, by combining intelligent transport systems technology with dedicated transit ways which calls for specialised stations.

Two Rajasthan high court advocates, Madhav Mitra and R.S. Chauhan, under the auspices of NGO Public Action Group, have filed a public inerest litigation demanding that packaged food companies, like soft drink makers, be directed to print the exact level of pesticide content on the food packs. A bench comprising S.K.

The launch of Palm Lahar soft drink could have gone unnoticed as just another cola launch, had it not been for the owner of the brand. Unbelievable as it may sound, it's the tourism-minded government of Kerala.

HEARD of Plachimada? Over the last two-and-a-half years, people in this Kerala village have been agitating to get a neighbouring Coke plant shut down. According to them, Coke's water mining has parched the lands of over 2,000 people.

ARTEMISININ, a drug isolated from sweet wormwood, has finally been approved by global health agencies as the first line of treatment of malaria instead of quinine, to which Plasmodium is showing increased resistance. The treatment is given as a cocktail known as artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) and it has shown dramatic results.

India and Global Climate Change belongs to that happy genre of books that are written pedantically and don't make many concessions for lay readers. But if you persevere you will be rewarded because the subject itself is so gripping.

Though solid waste management and municipal finances may not sound too exciting, they have created quite a buzz. Last September, credit rating firm Crisil instituted an award for 'Excellence in Municipal Initiatives'. It invited entries in areas like financial management, internal systems, and e-governance. Crisil received a whopping 90 entries from across the country.

India is planting the seeds of its own biotech

Across the country, many such initiatives to use bio-diesel as a fuel are currently underway.In fact, such programmes are being seen as vital to supplement India's growing need for fuel. Today,

Bureaucrats, NGOs and activists are using imaginative ideas to resolve India's deep rooted problems. And government is improving on