Political

Forwarded to the portal by: Arup Jyoti

Panos Institute South Asia’s RELAY programme invites print/web and television journalists to apply for the ‘Reporting research media fellowship programme’ on dams and development in Northeast India. 

Three print/web and one (1) television fellowship will be awarded to candidates who regularly contribute to media in Northeast India and are willing to write/ produce media outputs based on collaboration with research or researchers and primary field trips in the Northeast.

India is the largest user of groundwater resources in the world. It is estimated that approximately 230 cubic kilometers per year is used annually, this is more than a quarter of the total world consumption from this resource.

It is in this context that this World Bank report looks at the reasons for this quantum of groundwater usage.

The report delves into socio-economic and political reasons and looks at policies which inadvertently promote so much extraction. The report also analyses various attempts to manage this resource. These attempts range from government and international agency efforts directed to grassroots mobilisations. Finally the report comes out with suggestions to deal with this crisis.

This Current Science paper uses secondary data to discuss the disappearance of the river Saraswati. The enigma that was the disappearance of this river, which according to the author once upon a time greened Rajasthan and had nurtured civilizations on its shore, brought archaeologists, geologists, geophysicists, and climatologists to find answers. The author uses the body of work created by these scientists to solve the puzzle of the disappearance of the Saraswati.

Aurangabad, a city in central Maharashtra is in a drought prone region, and being a rapidly urbanising town, is facing a lot of pressure on ots water resources. Besides importing water there has been an increasing trend of ground water extraction.

In this context, a survey of groundwater use was conducted as part of a World Bank study on Indian groundwater management. The study was a collaboration between GW MATE(Groundwater Management Advisory Team) and GRASP (Grass Roots Action for Social Participation), an Aurangabad-based civil society organization working on community-based natural resource management.

Though the overall fresh water availability at the macro level has remained the same, many regions, particularly in the developing world today experience large imbalances between the demand and supply of water supply.

The process of economic development typically leads to environmental problems, which are becoming more serious because of the interacting effects of increasing industrialization and urbanization and poor enviornmental planning and management practices.

This course has been therefore designed to highlight the application value of the theory and practice of Environmental Planning and Management as followed internationally.

It examines its evolution from the 1970s onwards and focuses, in particular, on the reforms of the past decade, looking more specifically at the Swajaldhara Guidelines. These reforms are of capital importance because they seek to completely change the rural drinking water supply policy framework.

RANWA (Research and Action in Natural Wealth Administration) is an NGO having objectives that include environmental research, education and activism.

Under the Naturalist Scholarship Program 2011, it encourages students to apply for the programme by submitting the concept note of the project on the following themes:

• Biodiversity assessment and conservation
• Environmental issues in Konkan