In the late 1980s and very early 1990s, when scientists worldwide began to highlight global warming as a problem that needed urgent attention, pointing to carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning as the most potent cause, there emerged a counter-discourse that laid the blame of global warming squarely on another greenhouse gas, methane. Then in 1990, the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)

Widespread use of harmful hormones in orchards, especially those for pineapple and banana in hilly Modhupur and Ghatail upazilas in Tangail district, is posing serious health hazards for human.

The practice is also causing serious damage to environment and biodiversity.

The two upazilas produce around 1,50,000 tonnes of pineapples a year but famous Modhupur pineapple is losing its taste as different kinds of harmful hormones and chemicals are used to increase the yield, ripen the fruits early and make them look larger.

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the Centre has made additional allocation of 40,800 tonnes of chemical fertilisers for July, the State is still facing a shortage of 30,000 tonnes of complex fertilisers.

The additional allocation was made following a request from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Ram Vilas Paswan.

The Department of Fertiliser of the Ministry has communicated to the State Government about additional allocation of 8,800 tonnes of diammonium phosphate (DAP) as against a requirement of 25,500 tonnes for July and August.

THE one thing about India that leaves the world continuously gobsmacked is the country's boundless entrepreneurial spirit. Stories about legions of intrepid souls who dared to dream and gave shape to those visions are now part of corporate folklore. And, size is not the only distinguishing factor. The same courage and will to build something of one's own exists across the scale, whether it is the drive to set up a successful cottage unit, or to stake a lifetime's savings to buy some machinery for a small scale unit, or to make that leap of faith and go for size.

The Tea Board of India has decided to extend financial help in the form of subsidies to self-help groups (SHG) of small growers to encourage the formation of these clusters. The highest ceiling of such assistance has been fixed at Rs 5 lakh for each SHG, which must have at least 50 growers as members. The total area of plantation should not be less than 50 acres, or 20 hectares.

Sukhdeep Kaur Nabha : With none other than the Prince of Wales eager to market the organic produce of some 30 villages here under his brand, Duchy Originals, it's return of royalty to Nabha in Punjab. The erstwhile princely state had its first brush with royalty way back in the year 1755 when Raja Hamir Singh established the state after declaring sovereignty by minting coins independent of the Mughals and the Afghans.