Editorial
A boost for rice research
IT IS SOBERING that the unseemly controversy over `Golden Rice' -- a beta carotene enriched rice that would help fight problems associated with Vitamin-A deficiency -- appears to have taken a backseat, if not fully blown over, with anti-technology activi
st organisations beginning to tone down their opposition.
Foreign Trade
QRs survive Maran in exports
FEBRUARY 28 and March 31 are significant dates. On February 28, the Finance Minister stands in the lower house of Parliament as the cynosure of all eyes and TV cameras. Each word he utters is listened to with rapt attention and commented upon by the prof
essional experts gathered specifically for the purpose in television studios and, later, by scribes in the print media for months on end.
Miscellaneous
Dressing up
DRESSING UP is back in fashion in the US. Attending office in the casual mode is out. Suits languishing in wardrobes are being dusted up. Passing by a clothier's shop in Boston, where I now live, I saw an ad featuring the blow-up of an archival photograp
h of the 1950s of a beach scene, showing Americans cavorting in full suits as demanded by the stringent mores of the times. They were standing in the waves with their ties fluttering in the wind, and their perfectly creased pants lifted above the knee.
Power
The Dabhol dilemma
IT IS a 2,100-MW, $3-billion crisis. At stake is not just the investment but also the country's reputation as a destination for foreign direct investment. With the hardening attitudes of both Enron Corporation and the Governments (Centre and Maharashtra)
-- co-promoters of the ill-conceived, ill-fated Dabhol power project -- the stage seems set for a prolonged and painful legal battle. Both the parties to the dispute have assumed extreme positions which seem irreconcilable at the moment. Sadly, it need
not have been so.
States
Rebuilding Kutch, brick by brick
The UNDP, along with Kutch Abhiyan, is experimenting with model homes for villages in Kutch, devastated by the recent earthquake. A mason from Latur, Maharashtra, is seen building a stone house in which the brick walls are strengthened with steel cord to
prevent any lateral movement.
Technology
CNG as a motor fuel: Bright and dark sides
THE use of compressed natural gas (CNG) as an environment-friendly motor vehicle fuel has become a major issue in New Delhi, with the Supreme Court refusing to extend the deadline of March 31 for transport operators to switch to CNG buses. It is thus app
ropriate to quickly review the scientific and technological issues which govern the choice and the change-over from conventional liquid fuels to CNG.
Pig-iron from mining waste
MINING activity is commonly perceived as exploiting natural resources in the form of minerals. The resource, be it iron, coal, mica or copper, is excavated, dumped and transported for further applications. In the bargain, the mined area could become a du
mp, and the neighbourhood could be dotted with permanent sites for the leftover wastes.
Innovative staircases from CBRI
THE Roorkee-based Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), known for its innovative, low-cost materials for construction, has come up with a series of novel pre-fabricated staircases, targeted for mass housing programmes.
