Amita Bhaduri

Budget 2020: Is the allocation enough to meet the piped water dream

Experts discuss if the budget has enough funds for water access and security.

Posted on 09 Feb, 2020 09:25 PM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget announcement on February 1, 2020 made a push for piped rural drinking water supply and promised full coverage of all households by 2024.

Just 21.4 percent of India’s households have access to piped water, as per NSSO data (Image: Niyantha Shekar, Flickr Commons; CC BY-NC 2.0)

A climate change wake-up call

Climate change can lead to large-scale economic knock-on effects, says a McKinsey Global Institute report.

Posted on 21 Jan, 2020 06:53 AM

A new McKinsey Global Institute report, ‘Climate risk and response: Physical hazards and socioeconomic impacts’, suggests that many assumptions about the pote

Heat-exposed work has produced about half of India’s GDP, and employs about 75 percent of the labor force. There will be a need to shift working hours for outdoor workers and undertake heat management efforts (Image: Ian D Keating, Flickr Commons, CC BY 2.0)

Can ruin of quality forests be made up by plantations?

There is a gain in forest cover outside forest land as per the 'State of forest report 2019'. But, can reforestation replace natural forests and its essential ecosystem?

Posted on 18 Jan, 2020 04:49 PM

The recently released biennial State of India’s Forest Report 2019 (SFR) indicates an improvement in forest cover since 2017 but dense forests continue to turn into non-forests.

Chir pine trees felled by forest fires in Uttarakhand, 2016 (Image: Ramwik, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Kerala tops SDG index by NITI Aayog

Bihar, Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh are at the bottom of NITI Aayog's SDG Index, released recently.

Posted on 08 Jan, 2020 03:36 PM

Kerala retains the top slot with a score of 70, followed closely by Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana in the latest edition of NITI Aayog’s annual assessment of progress made by states in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDG).

Considering the poor performance on SDG implementation in many critical areas such as hunger, there is a need to focus on these (Image: The future of food)

If she built a country: A film review

The film looks at corporate grab of forest and private lands in the Scheduled Areas of Chhattisgarh.

Posted on 04 Jan, 2020 10:49 AM

Maheen Mirza’s film ‘Agar wo desh banati/ If she built a country’ looks at the widespread displacement on an unprecedented scale for mines and industries in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh.

The documentary brings attention to how development interventions changed gender relations (Image courtesy: People's Film Collective)

Nilogon for fluoride removal from groundwater

This unique low cost fluoride removal technology is not only affordable, but is also easy to operate as a water treatment filter with high efficiency suitable for rural application.

Posted on 01 Jan, 2020 10:41 AM

Groundwater contamination has emerged as an alarming issue in India and a recent UN report reveals that India ranks 120^th among the 122 countries in terms of water quality index.

Studies by the Central Ground Water Board in November 1999 confirmed the presence of fluoride in Assam which paved the way for the UNICEF and the government to collaborate on fluoride mitigation. (Image: India Water Portal)

Junk food red alert

A study by CSE rings the alarm bells on processed food responsible for obesity and non-communicable diseases.

Posted on 29 Dec, 2019 12:50 PM

A new study by the Centre for Science and Environment has exposed that levels of salt and fat in junk food is far higher than proposed thresholds in the country.

The study by CSE underlines the need to regulate bad food (Image: Ankur Gulati, Flickr Commons)

300 million people will be vulnerable to annual coastline flooding by 2050

The number of people vulnerable to floods triggered by climate change by 2050 is triple that of previous estimates, according to a new study.

Posted on 06 Nov, 2019 12:28 PM

A new research study by Climate Central, a US-based non-profit research group has projected that 300 million people could face annual coastal flooding triggered by climate change by 2050.

Aerial view of Chennai during floods 2015 (Image: Veethika, Wikimedia Commons, CC-SA 4.0 International)

Unregulated e-waste hotspots operating in Delhi with no safeguards

Study identifies 5,000 illegal e-waste units in Delhi operating without health and environmental safeguards.

Posted on 28 Oct, 2019 02:11 PM

A study by Toxics Link, a Delhi-based environmental research and advocacy non-profit identified 15 e-waste processing hotspots in Delhi operating with impunity without safeguards. These hotspots house over 5,000 illegal e-waste processing units directly and indirectly employing over 50,000 people.

Most of the operations in these units were found to be manual and rudimentary (Image: Toxics Link)

Towards a new horizontal water federalism

Where do the aspirations of riverine ecosystems and communities fit in a federalist set-up?

Posted on 09 Oct, 2019 08:04 PM

The execution of India’s institutional framework for preventing and solving conflicts over river water is still evolving. A new thinking on federalism in the field of water management to meet local aspirations and national ambition is needed.

Odisha and Chhattisgarh have locked horns over the distribution of waters of the Mahanadi river at Hirakud dam (Image: Makarand Purohit, India Water Portal)

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