Governance

Forwarded to the portal by: Pramathesh Ambasta

Reference: In the Supreme Court of India, Civil Original Jurisdiction Writ Petition (Civil) No. 645 of 2007, Centre for Environment & Food Security (Petitioner) Versus Union of India & Others (Respondents)

The Supreme Court in this important order dated 16 December 2010, has said that first, the right to livelihood has to be seen as an integral part of the Right to Life as enshrined within Article 21 of the Constitution and second that there is a clear need for an oversight mechanism at the level of the Central government and state governments.

Content and Image Courtesy: Youth for India

SBI Youth for India is a fellowship programme initiated, funded and managed by the State Bank of India in partnership with reputed NGOs. It provides a framework for India's best young minds to join hands with rural communities, empathise with their struggles and connect with their aspirations. The programme seeks to help India secure an equitable and sustainable growth path by:

• Providing educated Indian youth with an opportunity to touch lives and create positive change at the grass root level in rural India
• Providing NGOs working on development projects in rural India with educated manpower whose skill sets can be used to catalyze rural development
• Promoting a forum for the programme alumni to share ideas and contribute to rural development throughout their professional life

The terms of reference for monitoring included the following:

Content Courtesy: Solution Exchange and Nitya Jacob
Author: Nitya Jacob

India’s arteries are choking. Her rivers, the lifeline of hundreds of millions, are over-taxed, polluted and encroached. They are being mined, dammed and emptied of water. Save for the four monsoon months, most rivers are streams of drains, depending on how many cities they pass through. This year people gaped in awe at the River Yamuna (I am sure they were over-awed by other rivers elsewhere too) as for the first time since 1978 looked like a river and not a drain.

This paper is an outcome of  The Energy Research Institute's (TERI’s) study for the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) under the Ministry’s Centre of Excellence (COE) to “Review the existing guidelines of determination of user charges for water and sanitation services and to incorporate economic principles of pricing in urban water supply sector in India”.

This paper discusses how to go about designing an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary research project or programme, with ZEF’s research initiative on ‘water pollution and human health’ in India as the background of the presentation. A summary is given of Pohl and Hirsch Hadorn’s main arguments regarding ‘design principles’ for inter- and transdisciplinary research, and the basic tools they have developed for this are discussed in the context of ZEF’s ‘water pollution and human health’ research initiative.

Content and Image Courtesy: International Rivers

International Rivers is accepting applications for the position of Executive Director. International Rivers seeks a proven, passionate, and dynamic Executive Director who has a keen sense of the urgency of the threats to rivers and communities – as well as the need for sustainable solutions – and is ready to take on this challenge with enthusiasm, strategic vision, creativity, and bold tactics.

Organizer: Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT)

In this article published in Commodity Vision, the author presents the concept of the establishment of a 'futures market in water availability' in the context of the risk of water availability that Indian agriculture has been facing in the recent years.

With South Asian agriculture being dependent on the timely occurrence of the monsoons, any deviation from the scheduled arrival of the monsoon causes problems not only for the farmers, but also produces a threat to the food security of the region. However, the author argues that, there is no market in South Asia where users and investors exposed to water availability risk can effectively hedge against such a risk.

This paper by the World Resources Institute outlines potential water-related risks facing the mining industry and highlights important gaps in water-related disclosure. The purpose is to provide information, questions, and tools to help the financial community better evaluate water-related risks facing mining companies.