gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on March 29, 2007, announced a Rs 13-crore scheme for the state's urban poor. The programme, called Garib Samriddhi Scheme, envisages, among other things,

"Humne khule mein shauch jaane ki pratha chhod di hai (We have stopped defecating in the open)'. Painted against a whitewashed wall of the primary school in Baruki village, Uttar Pradesh's Bijnaur

>> Abul Hussam, a chemistry professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, was awarded the Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability. The Bangladesh-born US citizen was awarded by the

thrown out: Tamil actress Radhika has been expelled from the primary membership of AIADMK, the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu "for acting against the interests of the party'. She appeared in a

• Animal rights activists are up in arms over a Halloween contest in New York which offers customers free entry if they eat a live Madagascar hissing cockroach. The People for the Ethical

• Parkland Medical Center in Derry, the US, has been honoured for becoming mercury-free. It got the

• Wildlife film-maker, Mike Pandey and India's Central Zoo Authority were among the recipients of the first Proggy Awards given by the Indian branch of the NGO, People for Ethical Treatment To Animals.

Concrete Facts is the result of an exhaustive two year effort to rate the cement industry. It details the industry's ecological challenges and rates how well Indian companies address them. Companies are benchmarked against global best practices at each stage of the life cycle - from mining to use of waste materials. Ratings also cover water and energy use, technology, dust emissions, and corporate social responsibility. The book also details the economic performance of the companies and sees how socially responsibly these blue-chip companies are.

Nuclear Free Resistance

Wangari Maathai, Kenya's popular envi

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