NGOs working for the rights of the survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster on Wednesday alleged that various governments in Madhya Pradesh and at the Centre have failed to bring the culprits of the world's biggest industrial tragedy to justice even after 37 years.
Two women survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy will go on an indefinite hunger strike here from May 1 to press Dow Chemicals, the present owner of Union Carbide, to own up responsibility for the tragedy and assume the liabilities.
London politicians called on Olympic officials to rethink their sponsorship contract with Dow Chemical on Wednesday, saying the company's links to the 1984 Bhopal disaster damaged the reputation of this month's Games.
Under tremendous pressure from India to drop Dow Chemicals as London Olympics sponsors, the Games' organising committee chief Sebastian Coe said they are ready to meet the activists protesting against the company because of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
Sports Minister Ajay Maken, on Monday, said that the International Olympic Committee should keep the sentiments of Bhopal Gas tragedy victims in mind and drop Dow Chemicals as sponsors of next year's London Olympics.
The IOA on Monday indicated that India may take part in the London Olympics under protest after the International Olympic Committee rejected its demand to scrap the controversial Dow Chemicals as one of the sponsors of the mega-event.
Survivors of the deadly 1984 Bhopal gas leak are holding a 'Special Olympics' with children suffering birth defects from the tragedy.
Chemicals giant Dow say they are fully committed to providing the decorative wrap for London's Olympic stadium despite continuing criticism of its involvement because of its link to the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster.
Terming court's decision to summon Dow Chemicals in the Bhopal gas tragedy case as an "important step", Amnesty International today demanded that the company must acknowledge its responsibility towards the survivors of the 1984 industrial disaster.
A member of the body that oversees the sustainability of the London Olympics has resigned in protest at a sponsorship deal with Dow Chemical because of the American company's ties to the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster that killed thousands in Madhya Pradesh.
Shooter Gagan Narang became the first Indian athlete to say Dow Chemical should be allowed to be a sponsor of the 2012 London Games even though the Indian Olympic Association wants the organisers to reconsider it.
The government has asked its Olympic association to raise the issue of the London Olympic Games' sponsorship deal with Dow Chemical, the latest sign of pressure on organisers to reconsider involvement of a company linked to the Bhopal gas disaster.
The Indian Olympic Association are not considering boycotting the London Olympics despite local demands to do so over a Games sponsorship deal with Dow Chemical, the IOA's acting president said on Monday.
A boycott of the London Games because of Dow Chemical's sponsorship has not been mentioned by the Indian Olympic Association, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said.
After repeated letters of protest by the IOA failed to move the International Olympic Committee, the Indian government has now stepped in by asking the international body to drop Dow Chemicals as sponsor of this year's London Games for the company's link to the Bhopal Gas tragedy.
London Olympics organizers, on Monday, made it clear that it was never their intention that Dow Chemical's name would be on the fabric wrap around the main stadium for the Games and the company has now agreed to remove its branding.
Sports Minister Ajay Maken on Wednesday said the government has not yet thought of pulling the Indian athletes out of London Olympics due to row over Dow Chemicals' sponsorship.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has defended Dow Chemical's sponsorship of the Olympic Games in the face of Indian anger over the company's link to a deadly gas leak in Bhopal in 1984.
It has emerged that a senior US government functionary offered to help India garner greater funding from the World Bank in return for protecting Dow Chemicals from possible legal fallout from the gas tragedy.
A day ahead of the crucial General Body Meeting of the Indian Olympic Association on the controversial Dow Chemicals issue, its acting president VK Malhotra, on Wednesday, demanded the company to be removed from being one of the sponsors of the 2012 London Games.
As Air Force One landed in India's financial capital with promises of bonding between the United States and the country in many sectors, one of the key people missing from Barack Obama's 200-member business delegation was, The Dow Chemical Company chief.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Union Carbide Corporation, Dow Chemicals and others on a Centre's plea seeking enhancement of compensation to the victims of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy from Rs 750 crore to Rs 7,700 crore.
Dubbing as "paltry" the relief announced recently for Bhopal disaster victims, the opposition on Wednesday demanded a substantial increase in it and asked the government to become a party to a petition filed in a US court to extract compensation from American firm Dow Chemicals.
A former Dow research scientist was convicted for stealing trade secrets.
The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Centre for not being serious on disposal of toxic waste lying in the defunct Union Carbide India Ltd plant, now represented by DOW Chemical Company, in Bhopal for the last 28 years and asked it to take a final decision on it soon.
The clean up issue, ignored in the Bhopal gas tragedy settlement, emerged 20 years later, with the government trying to hold Dow Chemicals, UCIL's successor, liable on the 'polluter pays' principle. From the legal perspective, for the victims, efforts at Anderson's extradition or a Law Ministry face off with Dow on cleanup are pointless, writes Kumkum Sen
A children's movement in Bhopal takes on the might of Dow Chemicals.
Dow Chemical Company is once bitten, twice shy. Close on the heels of its US parent's move to deny liability for damages resulting from the Bhopal gas tragedy at a plant run by Union Carbide (a company it had bought), Dow India has called off a greenfield project to establish a research & development facility in Maharashtra.
According to the sources in the government, in a major U-turn, the Union law ministry has submitted a note to the Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram on the Bhopal gas tragedy, where it has, reportedly, recommended that the government of India should undertake the cleanup operation of the site of Union Carbide.
Dow India would comply with all the directives stated by the government to work outa solution to the current situation, the company said. Recently the company's research facility at Chakan was razed by a group of villagers, following which members of the Warkari sect claimed responsibility for the act, saying they would not allow the facility to come up at a place which is sacred to the followers of the 17th century Bhakti movement saint Tukaram.
The Union cabinet will discuss the report of the Group of Ministers on the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy on Thursday.
The Maharashtra government fears that the agitation against Dow Chemical's proposed Research and Development centre was orchestrated by its aggressive neighbour to influence Dow to take its $400-million project to that particular state.
In a list compiled by international chemical business information provider ICIS, Ambani has moved up four positions in this year's list, topped by German chemical major BASF chairman and CEO Jurgen Hambrecht. Ambani is the only Indian on the ICIS Top 40 Power Players list for 2008.
Hundreds of Warkaris (devotees of Lord Vitthal) who had gathered outside the prison premises late last evening, chanted name of Vitthal in chorus as Karadkar declared the sects resolve to oppose the setting up of the Dow Chemicals unit near Shinde village in the district.
Pune villagers are protesting against Maharashtra govt's move to give about 40 hectare of grazing land to Dow Chemicals for a R&D facility in Shendi village. The area's dairy business has suffered due to this and the villagers were also not informed. Activists say there is no environmental impact assessment report for the project. Over 10 villages in the Pune district have launched protests to save their grazing land, by not allowing construction material into their villages.
India's premier technical institute, IIT-Bombay's golden jubilee celebrations -- to be held in New York from July 18 to 20 this year -- have stirred a hornet's nest. The reason is that Dow Chemicals is one of the main sponsors.
Dow Chemicals will be converting its Pune unit into a global R&D centre that will focus on a wide spectrum of products.
Dow Chemicals, the US-based petrochem giant, may announce its intent of floating a joint venture with Reliance Industries this week.
The joint venture speculation between Reliance Industries and Dow Chemicals for Dow's underperforming commodity businesses could cost Reliance anything between $15 billion and $21 billion for a 60 -100 per cent stake.
An internal note obtained by activists from the Prime Minister's Office and dated February 2 this year says that the Ministry of Law believes that 'irrespective of the manner in which Union Carbide has merged or has been acquired by Dow, if there is any legal liability it would have to be borne by Dow Chemicals.' The note also puts a question mark on the prospects for future investments by US-based Dow in India.
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