Equity

Featured Articles
October 17, 2022
Invisible informal groundwater markets
While informal groundwater markets cater significantly to the needs of smallholder farmers in India, they continue to be unacknowledged and understudied.
Groundwater, a finite resource (Image Source: TV Manoj via Wikimedia Commons)
March 19, 2022
Women at the frontline of climate change adaptation
Women make strides in mainstreaming climate adaptation approaches on the ground
Kalyani Dash works with 150 households in the village directly and trains them on chemical-free farming techniques, water secure crop production, efficient water use in agriculture for a sustainable farming future as well as kitchen and nutrition gardening. (Image: FES)
March 6, 2022
A tool for crop choice integrates gender and farmer's preferences
Model used to explore consequences of different crop choices on income, gender-specific labour, use of inputs and markets
Promoting socially inclusive and sustainable agricultural intensification in West Bengal and Bangladesh (Image: ACIAR)
December 11, 2021
Counted, but not served?
Water remains inaccessible to the urban poor in the city of Mumbai as it continues to focus on developing new infrastructure to meet its very high per capita water needs. Why is this so?
Thirsty cities and the invisible poor (Image Source: Aathavan Jaffna via Wikimedia Commons)
December 6, 2021
Leaving no one behind!
Will it be possible to ensure equity and justice while balancing climate action goals with economic progress?
Taking everyone along while achieving a balance between economic growth and climate goals is crucial (Image Source: Good Energies)
December 2, 2021
The loo loop
Public toilets and choice of work for women
Separation between women and men’s toilets (Image: Rajesh Pamnani; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Climatic shocks wreak havoc on the Mahanadi delta
Much of the Mahanadi's deltaic coast is experiencing varying degree of erosion, a situation which is expected to worsen by 2050.
Sugata Hazra
Shouvik Das
Amit Ghosh
Pokkuluri Venkat Raju
Amrita Patel
Posted on 24 Jan, 2020 05:06 PM

The Mahanadi delta in Odisha is a composite delta fed by water, sediments and nutrients from a network of three major rivers: Mahanadi, Brahmani and Baitarini. The coastline of the delta is approximately 200 km long, extending from the Chilika lagoon in the south to the Dhamara river in the north.
The people living in the Mahanadi delta are forced to cope with frequent disasters, but recent progress in warnings, evacuation and shelters seems to have reduced losses. Urban areas in the delta are expanding and there is rural to urban migration which can be expected to continue. These urban areas will have important implications for the future of the delta. (Image: Helmer, Flickr Commons)
Neeru and the Nilgiris
Conserving springs, small hill wetlands and their catchment in the Nilgiris.
Aditi Sajwan
Water Practitioners Network
Posted on 24 Jan, 2020 11:36 AM

Locally called Neeru, water of the Nilgiris in its springs and wetlands has been the fountainhead for two main rivers systems of South India. Today, with growing anthropogenic influences, there is a water crisis in the hills that needs our attention more than ever before.
A view of the Nilgiris (Image credits: Golkul Halan)
India’s food systems in transition
A recent book looks at solutions to the various obstacles that impede India’s various food sub-systems.
Prabhu Pingali
Anaka Aiyar
Mathew Abraham
Andaleeb Rahman
Posted on 22 Jan, 2020 11:45 AM

A recent book ‘Transforming Food Systems for a Rising India’ by the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) at Cornell University provides a detailed assessment of the major paradoxes of the Indian growth story.
Organic food (Image: P L Tandon, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-SA 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.
Amita Bhaduri
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)
The Karnataka State Water Policy 2019
The Karnataka Jnana Aayoga (KJA) set up a Task Group to draft a new water policy for Karnataka in December 2017 and the report is now in public domain. What are the suggestions that the report makes?
Aarti Kelkar Khambete
Posted on 20 Jan, 2020 11:42 AM

The water crisis in Karnataka has not only led to severe agrarian distress in the eastern plains region but also created an acute shortage of domestic water, in both rural and urban areas. The 21st century has seen significant changes in demography, economy and agriculture, increasing the demand for water in the state.
Groundwater depletion, a growing challenge (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Whose forests, whose rights?
While forest bureaucracy has been trying to undermine reforms in forest governance in India, the need for community level forest governance is more urgent than ever.
Sharachchandra Lele
Posted on 15 Jan, 2020 02:58 PM

India’s forest sector, at crossroads
Mangar Bani, a green patch between Faridabad and Gurgaon (Image: Pradip Krishen, Facebook)
Karnataka farmers cope as wells fail
A study looks at how households adapt to slow-moving environmental changes such as groundwater depletion.
David Blakeslee
Ram Fishman
Veena Srinivasan
Posted on 13 Jan, 2020 07:08 PM

Like in many parts of India, Karnataka’s groundwater is a vital source of irrigation water, but has been depleted by a combination of a prolonged, multi-year drought and intensive extraction. Worsening agro-climatic and environmental conditions are threatening the incomes of smallholder farmers and hampering the continued progress in poverty eradication.
An irrigation well at Randullabad, Maharashtra (Image source: India Water Portal on Flickr; Image used for representational purposes only)
Groundwater variability: The tale of two states
Gujarat shows good groundwater storage while Rajasthan shows severe groundwater depletion, inspite of both states in western India receiving good rainfall. Why is this so?
Rakesh Meghwal
Deep Shah
Vimal Mishra
Posted on 12 Jan, 2020 09:28 AM

India, a groundwater stressed country
Groundwater decline in India (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Water policy for rainfed areas
The new national water policy should take up a comprehensive and integrated view of water resources development with a focus on rainfed areas.
Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Network
Posted on 10 Jan, 2020 12:12 PM

A committee has been constituted to draft a new National Water Policy (NWP) and make key changes in the water governance structure and regulatory framework. It is chaired by Mihir Shah, who is a former Planning Commission member and a water expert. The committee is expected to produce a report within six months.
Public investments on water in rainfed areas have much higher social rate of returns (Image: Kannan, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Kerala tops SDG index by NITI Aayog
Bihar, Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh are at the bottom of NITI Aayog's SDG Index, released recently.
Amita Bhaduri
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)
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