What exactly is lost when a language dies? Do we also lose a biotic world-view, the local knowledge and wisdom of which a language is a repository? Is it a coincidence that areas of linguistic and ethnic

Survival is the only business that thrives in an ailing continent

This paper estimates the economic burden of respiratory illness in rural UP (Uttar Pradesh), a state in North India. This is based on a large comprehensive survey covering a sample of 7564 households in 6 districts and 51 villages in UP. The economic value of the days lost due to illness in one month is 4233 million rupees. Cleaner fuels, health education and better health care can avoid some of these expenditures.

In 2000, a risk assessment of IAP (indoor air pollution) due to household use of solid fuels in India was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Smith 2000). Employing a different and more systematic method than used before, it estimated the premature deaths and illnesses resulting from household epidemiological studies of developing countries, which use solid fuels, to the Indian situation by employing the national Census report on percentage of household solid fuel use as the surrogate of exposure.

A pilot study was undertaken to assess the potential fertility of lentic waters and to ellucidate the ecology of aquatic flora. In addition, studies were performed at microcosmal level and the results, so obtained, were applied at field level, to forsee the impact of nutrients on natural waters.

Switching entirely to LPG to meet household energy needs is one way of reducing indoor air pollution. It also has the additional benefits of facilitating convenience in cooking and saving cooking time. Although there are a number of reasons why many households do not use LPG, the primary reason is that the poor cannot afford it. The Andhra Pradesh government has launched an innovative, targeted subsidy programme - the Deepam scheme - to encourage the LPG consumption among low-income households.