Young states push for growth, ignore environment
The relatively younger states in India are making a big push for industrialisation. In the process, they are eating into fertile agricultural land,…
The morning after
Human excreta is rich in soil nutrients. In a year, one person craps 4.56 kg of nitrogen (n), 0.55 kg phosphorus (p) and 1.28 kg potassium (k)&…
Double take
Scientists are flocking to Umri village in Allahabad district to study the reason it has so many twins. But ALOK GUPTA unravels the twin troubles …
Not ready for swine flu
With over 600 deaths this season, experts say India needs more research on the H1N1 virus before it is in a position to combat the flu
So much to give
A village in Kerala, encouraged by its progressive library, leads the way in organ donation
One big family
As we peek into our past, the number of our ancestors seems to double in every generation. For every human being has two parents, four …
Sourcing water from fog
Humans usually source water from rivers, wells, ponds or underground aquifers. All these sources are ultimately fed by rain (scientists prefer …
More than intoxicating
Yet government policy has forced many people to give up mahua -- their nutritious staple food
Icy hot destination
What's a non-scientific visit to Antarctica like? Uncommon privilege, says urmi popat
The cactus and its uses
Cacti are prickly, and pleasing. Extremely ungainly, they flourish in arid conditions where no plant will survive. Succulent inside, their thick …
The 4th estate pushes its limits
Malayala Manorama's water conservation campaign solves water woes of drought-plagued Keralities
Athens's fall
Typhoid could have caused the fall of the powerful city state during the Peloponnesian wars, says a new study
"All idiot farmers commit suicide"
Shubhranshu Choudhary finds out why farmers’ suicide is such a touchy subject in Chhattisgarh
They write the wrongs
Daughters of sex workers run a magazine to tell their mothers’ stories
A parallel government
A group of Afghanistan’s tribal elders supersedes constitutional bodies during national crises
Polio - alive and kicking
The polio virus is possibly the most innocuous virus that affects humans. The improvement of sanitation standards across the world has meant …
Saving Buddha's tree
Located on the banks of river Niranjana in Bodhgaya, south Bihar, the holy mahabodhi tree under which Buddha sat and meditated is infested with …
Reboot: moon
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the moon was a focus of much interest in the US and the erstwhile USSR. But that politico-scientific Cold War …
Rs 16 lakh crore
This is the least value of "unproductive" work done by women in a year in India, and it is close to government's annual budget
Pantabhat - well slept rice
Rice has been a staple food of West Bengal from antiquity and thus was grown in abundance all across the region. At one time, 60 varieties of …
Scientists in the fields
Farmers in South Andamans benefit with guidance from the Central Agricultural Research Institute
Lakhs out of lac
A village in Madhya Pradesh prospers by reverting to its traditional means of livelihood
Engulfed by the ravines
Once a throbbing rural business centre, Birahrua, in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh, is now haunted by devilish gullies
Missionary women doctors in nineteenth century Delhi
Throughout the 1860s a frail young European woman with a medicine chest was a conspicuous presence at the women's ghats of the river Yamuna in …
Reviving the Tharparker cattle breed
An NGO in Barmer has launched Tharparker animal breed improvement programmes in Minjrad and another village in the district. Two pure Tharparker …