pesticides are a clear & present danger

Consumers have won a major victory in the Supreme Court decision that makes it mandatory for cola firms to reveals the details of their contents. In particular the court’s ruling will go a long way in making public the exact amounts of pesticides in an aerated beverage. Given the fact that a large majority of consumers are children, the publication of information on labels will ensure that at least they become more aware of what they are consuming.
The court up held an earlier order of the Rajasthan high court which the cola majors wanted quashed. However the court has a given breather to the cola majors in not forcing any contempt of court proceedings. The cola majors had not carried such details on their labels following the earlier high court order.
The triumph for consumers however is to be seen in a context. The fact is that in India today everything from vegetables by the any the road side vendor, to milk available at the friendly neighborhood dairy is laced with pesticides. Ground water pollution too is a big worry.
That it took a court decision for this to be implemented rather than a state law is in it worrying. In India ever since the green revolution, Growth in food productivity has been accompanied by an enormous dose of pesticides. In India implementation of food and drugs administrations rules is notoriously lax. It is this that needs to be tightened. For water alone India has two laws one from 1974 that addresses water pollution and another from 1990 that address environment protection. However their implementation has been tardy
Urgent attention is needed to address larger issues of pollution. The yamuna in Delhi is the starkest example. While there is water treatment plants on the river the water has become so polluted now that even these are not enough to treat the water body of affluent. According to a TERI, and environment consultancy, a whopping 6000 million have been spent on the Yamnua alone - with no results to show in terms of controlling pollution. If this is the case with a major river one can only estimate the state of smaller water bodies and ground water in other parts of India.India must learn from China, where rampant industrialization has caused poisoning of as much as 40 % of its water bodies. It is all very well to single out high profile companies and make them accountable for pesticides in their wares - but without ensuring higher environment standards and compliance to laws already in place, the Indian consumer is doomed to leave in poisoned envir

indian airports are a shame

. The state of major airports in India is nothing short of a scandal. Near miss collisions, congestion lasting over three quarters of an hour, fatal accidents on the tarmac and traffic jams at the approach is all in a day’s flight at India’s airports. The airports are disasters waiting to happen.

A while back the aircraft carrying Sonia Gandhi came too close for comfort with another commercial flight. If this can happen on VVIP flights the layman is surly a sitting - or rather flying duck.
At the heart of the problem is the gap between the growth in the air traffic in India the infrastructure that ought to go with it. Currently 19 million people fly the Indian skies every year and this is going up at a staggering five million people per year. Of this growth 46 per cent has come from non-metro airports, which while not getting much publicity, are similarly constrained by infrastructure concerns.

The air traffic control links in India is poor both in numbers on the ground and the technology that they work with. Experts believe that the best way to ensure the position of an aircraft approach and departure position is the secondary surveillance radar. Shockingly many airports, including bangalore, are not equipped with this technology, likewise many airlines are not spending money to train their pilots in category III landing systems that allow for fog landing thereby throwing schedules off gear.

The second major concern is the unsustainable model of budget airline. Contrary to impression food and beverage costs are a tiny fraction of operating expenses. For both the full fare and budget airlines it is the fuel, maintenance, parking and crew costs that make up the large percentage of expenses. Thus temptations to cut costs are high a routine maintenance missed could lead to a catastrophic crash.

The bad news is that the scene at the Indian airports is likely top get worse before it gets better. Sure privatization at Delhi and Mumbai will help. It will create better utilization of resources and more comfortable transit. However till the airport authorities of India and the ministry of civil aviation comes in line with the urgent need for upgrading airport infrastructure today’s air traveler will have to contend with the fear of flying.