It's for court to decide on alternative alignment for dredging The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on Thursday cleared the government's affidavit to be filed in the Supreme Court on the controversial Sethusamudram project. The government has sought vacation of the stay on the implementation of the Sethusamudram project, Congress sources said. According to the sources, the government has presented the available scientific, technical and factual details on the project. It has maintained that no issue of faith was being touched upon in implementing the project. Buying time While leaving it to the court to take a view on the issue, the government has also left it open for the court to decide on an alternative alignment for dredging, for which first feasible studies would have to be conducted. In other words, this would enable the United Progressive Alliance government to buy time till after the general elections. On Wednesday, the Congress had officially declared that efforts were on to find a "balance' between "development' and "emotional sensitivities' with regard to the project.

The 11th Five Year Plan envisages lowering of the unemployment rate to below 5 per cent and seeks to add 58 million jobs by 2012 as the projected increase in labour force during the Plan period is 45 million. According to the Economic Survey, about 47 million jobs were created in 1999-2000 and 2004-05 with an annual average of 9.4 million. The organised sector employment increased from 54.12 million in 1999-2000 to 62.57 million in 2004-05. "The increase has been accounted for by an increase in unorganised workers in organised enterprises from 20.46 million in 1999-2000 to 29.14 million in 2004-05,' it said. However, the survey says that there was a decline in the organised sector employment growth in 1994-2005. This primarily happened due to a decline in employment in the public organised sector. Employment in establishments covered by the Employment Market Information System grew at 1.20 per cent per annum in 1983-94 but recorded a negative growth in 1994-2004. Agriculture The share of agriculture in total employment dropped from 61 per cent to 57 per cent between 1993-94 and 1999-2000. It further fell to 52 per cent in 2004-05. Industry also seems to be witnessing improved relations with workers as the number of strikes and lockout dropped by a whopping 34 per cent in 2007, even as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu continued to top the labour issues chart. The number of strikes and lockouts taken together was down by 33.72 per cent in 2007 as compared to 2006, based on provisional data. In 2007, the total number of strikes and lockouts stood at 285, amounting to a loss of 5.64 million mandays. In 2006, these figures were 430 and 20.32 million respectively. The number of strikes in 2007 was 143, accounting for a loss of 2.20 million mandays, while 143 lockouts resulted in 3.43 million lost mandays. Till November 2007, West Bengal had the maximum number of strikes, followed by Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

Youth brigade: (From left) Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rahul Gandhi, Jitin Prasad, Deepender Hooda, Tejaswini Sri Ramesh and other MPs after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Thursday. Congress MP and general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday led a delegation of MPs to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for centralised monitoring of the programme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. There is a demand to expand the scheme from 330 districts to cover all 600 districts. This is the second time that Mr. Gandhi has met the Prime Minister on NREGA, a flagship programme of the UPA government. However, there have been several complaints about the manner in which the programme, meant to give 100 days of employment to one able-bodied person in a rural household, was being implemented by States. "We met the Prime Minister to discuss the implementation of the NREGA. We gave some suggestions on how we can improve its implementation,' Mr. Gandhi told journalists after the meeting. He said they made some points for its better implementation. The delegation sought social auditing mechanisms to identify those who deserved to be in the programme and those who did not. For this, they sought the creation of an IT infrastructure "which would make available at the press of a button the beneficiaries and make for greater accountability,' said party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi. He said the MPs urged the Prime Minister to ensure that NREGA was operationalised nation-wide in a transparent and participatory manner. "Since the programme is largely funded by the Centre, the delegation felt that the Central government should monitor how States were spending allocations and promote mutual learning amongst States by following best practices of specific State governments, such as Andhra Pradesh.' The Prime Minister is understood to have assured the delegation that he would look into their demands. Among those who accompanied Mr. Gandhi were Jyotiraditya Scindia, Tushar Amarsinh Choudhry, Milind Deora, Sandeep Dixit, Deepender Hooda, Jitin Prasad, Pallam Raju, Devavrata Singh, Tejaswini Sri Ramesh and Balashowry Vallabhaneni.

Pointing to the "loss of dynamism' in agriculture and allied sectors, the 2007-08 Economic Survey calls for a "second green revolution,' particularly in rainfed areas, to rejuvenate the sector and improve the income of those dependent on it. "Any deceleration in the growth of this sector is translated into a lower overall Gross Domestic Product growth.' "The share of agriculture in the GDP registered a steady decline from 36.4 per cent in 1982-83 to 18.5 per cent in 2006-07. Yet this sector continues to support more than a billion people providing employment to 52 per cent of the workforce,' notes the survey. The agriculture, forestry and fishing sector is estimated to grow at 2.6 per cent during 2007-08 against the previous year's growth of 3.8 per cent. Apart from weather fluctuations, output has been affected on account of reduced capital investment and plateauing out of yield in major crops. The target growth rate for the farm sector is four per cent. In 2007-08, the overall production of foodgrains is expected to be short of the target by 2.2 million tonnes though 10.1 million tonnes higher than the second estimates for 2006-07. Kharif output is expected to be 5.3 million tonnes in 2006-07 while rabi production is expected to be lower by 3.3 million tonnes. Broadly, the survey points out, there was a shortfall in the target of production of foodgrains, pulses and oilseeds from 2000-01 to 2006-07. The production of foodgrains was 93 per cent of the target. During the period, the actual output of pulses on average was 87.7 per cent of target and of oilseeds, 85.3 per cent. Production of sugarcane and cotton, however, exceeded targets. Expressing concern over the low growth of agriculture compared to non-farm sectors, the survey says the gap has begun widening since 1981-82 and more particularly since 1996-97, due to the acceleration in the growth of the industry and services sector. Between 1950-51 and 2006-07, production of foodgrains increased at an annual rate of 2.5 per cent compared to the population growth rate, which averaged at 2.1 per cent, as a result of which India was self-sufficient in foodgrains till 2005-06. The scenario, however, changed between 1990 and 2007 when the rate of growth of foodgrains production fell to 1.2 per cent, which was lower than the average population growth rate of 1.9 per cent. During the period, the per capita consumption of cereals declined from peak 468 gm per day in 1990-91 to 412 gm in 2005-06. The consumption of pulses declined from 42 to 33 gm. There has been a "considerable decline' in the rate of growth of area, production, productivity and the area irrigated for major crops. The area under production of foodgrains over 16 years witnessed an average annual decline of 0.26 per cent during the period from 1989-90 to 2005-06, largely because of a shift from coarse grains. At the same time, there has been a continuous decline in the rate of creation in irrigation potential, adding to the deceleration in farm growth. New schemes The government has recently launched the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, which gives flexibility to States to evolve their own schemes provided they invest in the sector. A National Food Security Mission has been introduced to enhance the production of wheat, rice and pulses. The National Agriculture Insurance Scheme and the pilot weather-based insurance programme must be strengthened for wider coverage, says the survey. "Acceleration of growth in this sector will not only push the overall GDP upwards, it would also make the growth more inclusive and biased in favour of women. Increasing farm incomes is also necessary for equitable growth.'

Bob Crebas still introduces himself as "an old hippy.' But these days it is not recycled washing machines and bric-a-brac that the Dutchman trades in. He has swapped all this for fashion collections made from stinging nettles, designed and produced by his fast-growing business Brennels.nl. Four years ago, Crebas and his business partner were selling second-hand wares through a trading website called Marktplaats.nl when they were approached by eBay, the hugely successful auction website, and made the kind of offer you can't refuse. The American firm bought out Marktplaats.nl for

CM opens international symposium on

Haryana has cut the supply from 600 cusecs to 500 cusecs from February 15 It has badly affected Central Delhi that houses VIPs including the President and the PM Water production at Chandrawal and Wazirabad plants has come down by 20 to 30 per cent NEW DELHI: Water woes have re-surfaced in the Capital with Haryana slashing the supply by about 100 cusecs. The reduction in water being released for Delhi has badly affected the New Delhi Municipal Council areas that house residences of VIPs, including the President and the Prime Minister. According to Delhi Jal Board sources, Haryana has cut the supply of water from 600 cusecs to 500 cusecs from February 15. Consequently the minimum level of water in the Yamuna has fallen to 673 metres from the mandatory 674.5 metres. Sources have also said the production of water at the Chandrawal and Wazirabad water treatment plants had come down by 20 to 30 per cent. "Production of water has been affected in the Chandrawal plant, which has on its command area the VIP areas and large parts of Central Delhi. To mitigate the effect and ensure there is equitable supply of water, we have reduced production of water at Wazirabad,' said a Delhi Jal Board official. Blaming Haryana for reducing the supply of water "without any prior intimation', the official said: "We have been issuing communiqu

Half of them will live in urban areas by end of 2008:U.N. Half the world's people will live in urban areas by the end of this year and about 70 per cent will be city dwellers by 2050, with cities and towns in Asia and Africa registering the biggest growth, according to new U.N. projections. But India is expected to urbanise at a significantly lower rate than China, and is expected to remain the country with the largest rural population during coming decades. The report predicts that there will be 27 "megacities' with at least 10 million population by mid-century compared to 19 today, but it forecasts that at least half the urban growth in the coming decades will be in the many smaller cities with less than 500,000 people. According to the latest U.N. estimate last year, world population is expected to increase from 6.7 billion in 2007 to 9.2 billion in 2050. During the same time period, the report said, the population living in urban areas is projected to rise from 3.3 billion to 6.4 billion. "Thus, the urban areas of the world are expected to absorb all the population growth expected over the next four decades while at the same time drawing in some of the rural population,' the report said. "As a result, the world rural population is projected to start decreasing in about a decade, and 600 million fewer rural inhabitants are expected in 2050 than today.' The report stresses that these projections will take place only if the number of children in families in the developing world continues to decline, especially in Africa and Asia. Hania Zlotnik, head of the U.N. Population Division, expressed the hope that increasing urbanisation "will go hand in hand with economic growth.' She said more than 70 per cent of the population in Europe, North America, and many other richer developed countries already live in urban areas. But only 39 per cent of Africans and 41 per cent of Asians lived in urban areas last year . "During 2008, for the first time in history, the proportion of the population living in urban areas will reach 50 per cent,' it said. By mid-century, Asia is projected to see its urban population increase by 1.8 billion, Africa by 900 million, and Latin America and the Caribbean by 200 million, it said. China at this moment is 40 per cent urban, Ms. Zlotnik said. The U.N. expects its urban population to reach more than 70 per cent by 2050 , she said. By contrast India, currently has just over 300 million urban residents, or 29 per cent of its population living in urban areas, Ms. Zlotnik said, and by 2050 it is expected to have only 55 per cent of its population, about 900 million, in cities. "So India is expected to urbanise much less than China, and therefore it is expected to remain the country with the largest rural population during most of the future decades.'

With more recent data on the Himalayan glaciers from the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites, scientists of the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of the Indian Space Research Organisaation (ISRO) at Ahmedabad now have much stronger evidence of the finger print of global warming in the observed alarming retreat of these glaciers. The new results were presented at the ongoing National Space Science Symposium (NSSS-2008) here by Dr. Anil V. Kulkarni of SAC. In 2004 Dr. Kulkarni and his colleagues investigated the spatial extent of 466 glaciers in the basins of Chenab, Parbati and Baspa using remote sensed data and compared them with the 1962 topographic data of the Survey of India. They found an overall reduction of 21 per cent in the glacial surface area. They had also found that the process of deglaciation had led to the fragmentation of large glaciers resulting in the reduction in the mean surface area of glacial extent from 1 sq. km. to 0.32 sq. km. during 1962-2004. The new data pertains to two additional basins of Warwan and Bhut comprising 253 and 189 glaciers respectively. Together with the earlier data on 466 glaciers, the cumulative area of these 908 Himalayan glaciers has been found to have reduced from 3391 sq. km. to 2721 sq. km., implying a total area reduction of 20 per cent. Another new finding is that the snow line

Cockroaches survived much more than humans Fruit flies, flour beetles tougher than cockroaches Last year, the Myth Buster TV team from the Discovery Channel announced that they would find out experimentally whether cockroaches would be the only living form to survive a nuclear war (The Hindu, November, 1, 2007). On January 30, this year (Episode number 97), the team busted the myth which was in their priority list from day one. The announcement that the myth buster team will conduct an experiment received wide media coverage; surprisingly, the media virtually ignored the results of the experiment. The experiment The staff of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory at Hanford site (U.S.) assisted the team to expose three groups of German cockroaches (50 each) to 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000 rads of gamma radiation using an irradiator located in the basement of a building at Hanford. The fourth group of 50 cockroaches served as control... (Rad is a unit of radiation dose; a dose of 450 rads may kill 50 per cent of the persons exposed). They exposed similar groups of 50 flour beetles and 100 fruit flies which represented other living forms to similar doses. Many bugs initially survived after receiving 1,000 rads and 10,000 rads . However, only some flour beetles survived after receiving a dose of 100,000 rads. Fruit flies and flour beetles are found to be tougher than cockroaches. For instance, on the second day after receiving 100,000 rads, all the cockroaches died; 40 per cent of the fruit flies and 90 per cent of the flour beetles survived. The survivors will be infertile. "While cockroaches survived much more than the humans would, the other two test subjects did better than the cockroach,' the TV channel declared. They concluded that they busted the myth since, more life forms than cockroaches survived! The spectators' reactions to the TV programme, revealed how differently the common man understands radiation related concepts. Is it safe to go into the room after cobalt irradiated the bugs? A viewer wanted to know. The questioner wrongly felt that irradiation with cobalt will leave the room radioactive! One viewer objected to the use of cobalt radiation to irradiate the bug. "Considering that the myth was "will cockroaches survive a nuclear blast' shouldn't they have used uranium-238?' he queried. "I believe that this is the substance used in modern day nuclear weapons,' he argued. (Obviously he did not understand the difference between radiation from a nuclear weapon and that from uranium-238). It was equally wrong on the part of the TV channel to claim that they are exposing the insects to a nuclear blast when they actually exposed the bugs to gamma radiation from a cobalt source. The survivability of cockroaches in a nuclear war has been a topic of interest for several years. Based on the work of Hassett and Jenkins (Nucleonics, 1952),Professor John Moulder, Professor of Radiation Biology, Medical College of Wisconsin, noted that about 900-1,000 Gys are needed to kill a cockroach (one Gy= 100rads); more dose is required if the dose is delivered at a slower rate. The claim that not enough scientific data are available is not true. Strong evidence In 1957, Drs Wharton and Wharton found that 1,000 rad can interfere with the fertility of cockroach. In 1963, Drs Ross and Cochran found that a low dose of 6,400 rad would kill 93 per cent of immature German cockroaches. Inspite of such unimpeachable evidence on its radiation-vulnerability, the myths about this unlovable creature may survive, not withstanding the fame and popularity of the