Governance

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November 6, 2022 In 2020, 559 million children were affected by four to five heatwaves a year; numbers could increase four-fold by 2050, as per a report by UNICEF
Heat-related mortality is four times higher among children under 1 year of age than in persons aged 1–44 years (Image: Taqver, Wikimedia Commons)
October 22, 2022 Role of MGNREGA in the year after the 2020 lockdown: Survey findings from Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh
MGNREGA provided income support or security to vulnerable households during the pandemic (Image: UN Women)
October 14, 2022 Arthan organizes a fireside chat to highlight the need for more data talent for social impact
There is a need to integrate data science into the existing education system (Image: Mohamed Mahmoud Hassan, Public Domain Pictures)
September 9, 2022 Highlights from a new report released by iFOREST
An old coal-fired power plant has been dumping vast quantities of ash out in the open for many years. (Image: Lundrim Aliu/ World Bank; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
July 14, 2022 The river is faced with the dual problem of flood plain encroachment and growing levels of water pollution
Illegal transverse check dams (Badhals) built on Ichamati near a village in Basirhat (Image: Prithviraj Nath @ TheWaterChronicles)
July 10, 2022 People in India fleeing disasters like drought more likely to have experienced trafficking or modern slavery than those fleeing floods or cyclones
The country's climate change assessment suggests things are only going to get worse (Image: Saurav Karmakar, India Water Portal Flickr)
Swachh Bharat Mission: 80% behind target
News this week Posted on 27 Jan, 2015 11:14 AM

Swachh Bharat seems a distant dream

Ecosan toilet built in a village
State Action Plans for climate change analysed
5 states, which submitted Action Plans on how to tackle climate change in a decentralised manner, have made limited progress due to many reasons including a lack of clarity in recommendations made. Posted on 21 Jan, 2015 06:20 PM

Recent years have shown a growing awareness on the relevance of climate change for India within the government as well as civil society, business and media. India has prepared its National Action Plan on Climate Change amidst growing international pressure to devise domestic climate adaptation strategies.

Mountains in the catchment area of Khadakwasla dam
Maharashtra and Telangana oppose interlinking plan
News this week Posted on 20 Jan, 2015 04:56 PM

Strong opposition to interlinking of Gujarat and Maharashtra rivers

Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh
Mission to clean Yamuna in Delhi by 2017
Policy matters this week Posted on 19 Jan, 2015 09:08 PM

NGT announces heavy fines, bans farming to clean up Yamuna

Yamuna river in Agra
Social regulation as a key to sustainable groundwater use
While a knowledge-based approach to groundwater management improves awareness, it does not address issues of equity. Posted on 19 Jan, 2015 11:02 AM

Sustainable management of groundwater continues to be ignored in India although its hydrogeological and socieconomic aspects continue to be studied extensively. Despite recognition of its importance at the policy level, no clear plan of action exists for groundwater management in India. 

A well in Odoor farms, Mangalore
The dark life of the Kelo
Senior journalist Shiv Rajpoot, who has traveled across the Kelo river in Chhattisgarh twice by foot, shares the story of its transformation. Posted on 15 Jan, 2015 11:52 PM

"The Kelo river has never been like this but in the last two decades, the economic growth in the region has spoiled the purity of the river", says eminent journalist  Shiv Rajpoot from Raigarh, who is also known as "Kelo man". He has twice traveled by foot, the 90 km stretch of the Kelo from its origin to its end.

The objectives of his two visits were to study and document:

Shiv Rajpoot during his Kelo Yatra, 2008
Ganga Maiyya ki Jai': Uma Bharti at the Ganga Mahasabha
Listen to (and read the text of) Uma Bharti, the Minister of Water Resources, talk about her Ministry's plans for the Ganga including riverfront development. Posted on 15 Jan, 2015 05:57 PM

Banaras has always been identified with Baba Vishwanath but Modiji said that he had been called here by the Ganga. Ganga was thus present in the election atmosphere. When he extended the cabinet, he established a ministry for the Ganga. Some unprecedented things have happened in these elections.

Boats on the ganga
Norms violated for Ken-Betwa river link's public hearing: Activists
News this week Posted on 12 Jan, 2015 11:01 PM

Activists say that the villagers were informed late for the public hearing of the Ken-Betwa river link

People's public hearing
Nationwide monitoring of toilet use under Swachh Bharat Mission
Policy matters this week Posted on 12 Jan, 2015 10:55 PM

Government to launch nationwide monitoring of toilet use, not construction

Construction of community toilets in progress
Water wars: Not what you think!
India has a role to play in trans-boundary water interactions in the South Asian region. Cooperation, not war, could be resulting outcomes. Posted on 09 Jan, 2015 09:31 AM

Since the 1990s, it has often been predicted that all the conflicts over this century will be over water and that they will be fought in the South Asian region, which is undergoing a rapid growth in population coupled with a gradual decrease in water resources.

The Brahmaputra river (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
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