>> The weekly news service on the environment and development, Tierram

PRADIP SAHA talks to DILIP CHERIAN, founder and consulting partner of image management firm Perfect Relations, about the clash between public relations and public interest

There is a political process to public policy. Does corporate lobbying go against that democratic norm?

at the fag end of the monsoon session of Parliament last year, 28 parliamentarians and politicians, including veterans like Motilal Vohra and Natwar Singh, sent a letter urging human resources

Regulation on lobbying a dream According to Jayoti Lahiri, secretary general, Public Relations Consultants Association of India, "There is very little literature on the functioning of public

Lobbyists crawl around legislators An Action Aid report on lobbying, released on January 25, 2006, highlights privileges enjoyed by corporate lobbyists in framing global trade rules under the

In the face of skyrocketing petrol prices, the New Zealand government has said that it would delay the introduction of a new petrol rates under the emissions trading scheme (ets) for two years.

the common wisdom of electoral democracy might call for politicians, specialising in arithmetic, who can identify the biggest number. But the post-modern understanding of electoral politics may demand integrating a small number of voters whose limit to power is tending towards infinity! Let us look at how a few road dividers on a stretch of 19 km in Delhi have completely divided the urban classes (see page: 32-38).

It seems that television is following in the footsteps of 16th European invaders to Latin America. A British reality tv company has been accused of starting a flu epidemic that left four people

there is a strange kind of realism in television these days. Characters on a lot of shows appear much less plastic today. Every time you turn on the television, you are likely to find some "real people' popping up on shows that combine competition and confinement, humiliation and voyeurism in varying degrees. Whatever critics might say, reality tv has become de rigeur.

It is difficult to attribute anything aesthetic to computer viruses, spam mail and other cyber threats. But that's exactly what Message Labs has done. In the second week of March, the uk- based

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