Sarpamitras to get ID cards in Maharashtra
Some voluntary snake rescuers were found involved in smuggling snakes or keeping them in captivity, prompting forest department to fix …
‘English wiped out local languages elsewhere, not in India’
Eighty-Five years after George A Grierson, a British administrator, conducted the first survey of languages in India, another such exercise has …
Shift grain bowl status from North to other regions of India
Balwinder Singh Sidhu, agriculture commissioner and chief conservator of soils in Punjab, is known for giving his opinion in a frank and …
‘The role of the state should be pragmatic, not ideological’
Calestous Juma is professor of Practice of International Development and faculty chair of Innovation for Economic Development Program at Harvard …
'I cannot be a mute spectator to the carnage of Ganga'
As Uttarakhand grapples with the task of repair and restoration, octogenarian environmentalist G D Agarwal's fast to free Ganga of dams continues.…
Technology interventions that save water
It was early June. Jaspal Ram of Lehra Turkot in district Bathinda of Punjab was busy in his field putting gunny bags filled with mud on a plank …
Remembering Nammalvar: farewell, organic saint-warrior
G Nammalvar, the agriculture scientist who pioneered organic farming movement in Tamil Nadu, passed away on December 30 at the age of 75. He …
My report is not an industry report: T S R Subramanian
The High Level Committee (HLC), constituted by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) three months ago to …
‘South-East Asia must remain polio-free after certification’
Poonam Khetrapal Singh became the first woman to assume the office of WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia on February 1, 2014. Her priority …
Village protesting Kundankulam bans poll campaigning by any party
S P Udayakumar, coordinator of Peoples’ Movement Against Nuclear Energy, has been spearheading protests against the Kudankulam Nuclear …
'Biodiversity authority needs autonomy'
Balakrishna Pisupati was the first biodiversity expert to head India's National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) and had more than six months to go …
‘China growth model cannot be universal’
Wen Teijun, dean of Renim University in Beijing, has been documenting the world's agrarian history and turmoils. He initiated the New Rural …
‘Watershed conservation can benefit 700 million people in 100 big cities’
Indian cities are struggling to fight water stress. Cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Jodhpur are going to areas located far away to source …
‘Separate power feeders can greatly improve rural electrification’
Over 65 years after Independence, nearly half of the 800 million people living in rural India are yet to get access to electricity. A major …
Southeast US will bear the worst of this year’s winter, says AccuWeather
This US-based independent weather agency set off gasps of dread and many counter-forecasts last week when it indicated “the return” …
I was dropped because I stood for Western Ghats conservation: P T Thomas
P T Thomas, senior Indian National Congress leader and sitting Member of Parliament from Idukki Lok Sabha constituency, has been denied a ticket …
'Elephant conservation is not exactly anybody’s priority'
M D Madhusudan is an ecologist and conservationist with Nature Conservation Foundation in Mysore, Karnataka. An elephant expert, he is a member …
Lowland rice is a carbon sink
Pratap Bhattacharyya, senior scientist at the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) in Odisha, along with his team at the institute, says rice …
Iran-India gas pipeline laid low by geopolitics
Mani Shankar Aiyar is known for the many controversies sparked by his provocative comments and controversial ideas. As Minister for Petroleum and …
‘People often talk of the Gandhian model of development, but if such a model is genuinely Gandhian then it is not about development’
Mahatma Gandhi never used the words environment protection. However what he said and did makes him an environmentalist. His writings are replete …
Private sector is profiting from vacuum left by ICAR
In the agriculture research hierarchy, Swapan Kumar Datta occupies the second rung, one of eight deputy director generals (DDGs) in the Indian …
'Punjab Contract Farming Act protects traders’ interests'
In April this year, the Punjab Assembly passed the Punjab Contract Farming Act. The new law provides a legal framework to regulate contract …
From the dirtiest to the cleanest: Mexico City’s journey
Mexico City is today recognised as one of the cleanest cities in the world, and the credit for this goes to Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon who recently …
How MEA torpedoed the Bangladesh-India gas pipeline
Mani Shankar Aiyar is known for the many controversies sparked by his provocative comments and controversial ideas. As minister for petroleum and …
The many ways of GM contamination
Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist in the food and environment programme at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), is among the most …