Asbestos Factory Built Against Law & Better Sense

  The fact that asbestos has been banned in 52 countries attests to the lethal nature of its fibres, which are directly linked to lung cancer and asbestosis if inhaled. However, in India, steered by a need for jobs and sturdy building material, asbestos continues to be manufactured and imported in large quantities. According to the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database, India is the largest importer of asbestos, most of which is used in the production of corrugated roofing sheets. In Ajeet's village in Bihar, the owners of the factory bought fertile land from the villagers under the pretext of setting up a medicine manufacturing unit. Once the truth came out, the inhabitants surrounding the factory complained and insisted that it be shut down. But authorities, pressured by a powerful lobby, have turned a deaf ear. Bereft of proper health care and security regulations, villagers are afraid that the ones who work in the factory and those who live around it will be exposed to a slow and inevitable death.
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A Call for Research on AI’s Role in Amplifying the Insights of the Systemically Unheard

 
/ January 14, 2025

The article argues that systematically ignoring and silencing the voices of the poor and marginalized worldwide does not serve society or democracy well and must be countered. While new technologies such as AI could provide an opportunity for change, we contend that these technologies need to account more effectively for...

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How to Juggle a Career as a Community Correspondent as well a Mainstream Media Reporter

 
/ March 31, 2023

When the staff at Gannett newspapers in the US coined the term MOJO (Mobile Journalism) to describe new ways of gathering and distributing news using emerging technologies in 2005, they would not have imagined its virality and use ten years later.    Ask new media journalists and our Community Correspondents Shah...

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