Government Programmes

Featured Articles
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)
July 7, 2022 PMAY needs policy commitment to rehabilitate slums in small and medium cities of Gujarat
Need for legal framework for land rights in small and medium cities of Gujarat under PMAY (Image: Homes in the City)
May 25, 2022 Enabling a culture of data sharing between programs and reuse of data
Participatory programs such as JJM require a large amount of village-level information on water (Image: Arpit Deomurar, FES)
March 15, 2022 World Resources Institute (WRI) India and the C40 Cities network develop Mumbai’s first-ever Climate Action Plan
The MCAP adopts a scientific evidence-based planning approach to mobilize resources and move from planning to implementation of strategic projects (Image: Deepak Gupta, Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0)
February 28, 2022 Gujarat aims to achieve 100 per cent saturation in tap water connection for every household by October 2022 under the Jal Jeevan Mission
The SCALE project implemented in villages in semi arid regions enabled ultra-poor groups in project villages improve their access to drinking water (Image: European Union, Flickr Commons)
February 10, 2022 Budget for sanitation sees a decline
Jal Jeevan Mission has picked up pace after two years (Image: Anita Martinz, Wikimedia Commons,  CC-A-2.0 Generic)
Empowering, involving local communities crucial for reviving Yamuna: Study
A user-friendly water quality index could be created to help riverine communities take informed decisions. Posted on 07 Sep, 2020 12:56 PM

There aren’t many studies on understanding the socio-economic impact of river pollution, and the handful of those available miss out on capturing the voices of the local communities who are most affected by river pollution.

To improve the participation of the riverine communities in river clean-up activities, a platform can be set up as a governance mechanism. (Image: Thommen Jose, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Is the draft EIA notification 2020 anti-environment?
The draft notification is alleged to dilute the process and standards for environmental clearances for industries. Posted on 30 Aug, 2020 04:48 PM

Economic development and creation of jobs have been India’s most critical challenges, and continue to be an overriding priority for the government. India’s rise in the World Bank’s global ranking on the ease of doing business is complemented with a successive downturn in its position on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) from 2014 to 2019.

Villager looking at mining devastated areas in Goa (Image: Frederik Noronha; Wikimedia Commons; CC A-S A 4.0 International)
Drying veins of Ganga: Can we have ‘Nirmal Ganga’ with dying tributaries?
There is an urgent need to prioritise uninterrupted river flow over unpolluted flow in the Namami Gange programme. Posted on 27 Aug, 2020 05:22 PM

India’s Himalayan rivers have been a cradle of civilisational development and a centre for faith and culture for ages. Ganga being a fertile basin has been a significant contributor to our agricultural economy as well as our river-based agrarian development.

The Baand river is nearly dry even when the region saw above normal monsoon this year. Much of the riverbed is encroached by farms. (Image: Adeel Khan and Praharsh Patel)
Swachh Survekshan 2020: Indore tops in cleanest city category
News this week Posted on 25 Aug, 2020 09:19 PM

Indore once again tops the Swachh Survekshan 2020 in the cleanest city category

Clean road near Pardesipura, Indore. (Source: India Water Portal)
Next phase of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban to focus on water treatment
Policy matters this week Posted on 25 Aug, 2020 08:26 PM

Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban: Next phase to focus on water treatment and toilet waste disposal

Next phase of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban to focus on water treatment (Image source: India Water Portal)
Decentralised governance key to handling Covid-19
There is a positive correlation between the panchayat raj system and effective handling of Covid-19, says Mani Shankar Aiyar. Posted on 22 Aug, 2020 07:38 PM

Panchayats have been the core of India's rural governance even before they received the constitutional mandate through the 73rd constitutional amendment in 1992, forming the basis of decentralization in the country. There are 2.5 lakh gram panchayats; over 6 lakhs villages; around 4500 urban local bodies and 4000 census towns in the country.

A first time Sarpanch of Lahora Gram Panchayat in Rajasthan’s Tonk District, stands committed, guiding the community with her political acumen. (Image: UN Women;CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Water projects get priority in MGNREGA amidst COVID-19
Efforts needed to better utilise MGNREGA funds to deter vested interests from misappropriating. Posted on 18 Aug, 2020 01:54 PM

Lockdown in April to May 2020 due to COVID-19 led to the mass migration of workers from the cities to villages. Despite strict measures by the government to stop any movement, people facing lost jobs and high cost of living in the cities began to walk back or use whatever transportation was available to travel to their home villages.

Work in progress at an MGNREGA site (Image: UN Women/Gaganjit Singh)
Groundwater extraction: NGT gets strict with commercial entities
Policy matters this week Posted on 12 Aug, 2020 08:41 AM

NGT bans granting general permissions for groundwater extraction to commercial entities

NGT gets strict with commercial entities (Source: IWP Flickr album)
Monsoon experiences a countrywide deficit of 10 percent in July
News this week Posted on 12 Aug, 2020 08:27 AM

Monsoon 2020: Countrywide deficit of 10 percent in July; September may have heavy rains

July experiences rain deficit of 10 percent (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Banking on rainwater harvesting
National Water Mission’s campaign aims at creating rainwater harvesting structures in various parts of India. Posted on 11 Aug, 2020 10:27 AM

National Water Mission’s (NWM) has launched a campaign ‘Catch the rain’ on a pan India basis to nudge the states and stakeholders to create appropriate rainwater harvesting structures (RWHS) suitable to the climatic conditions and sub-soil strata before the onset of monsoon.

As a part of the campaign, work is being done on various interventions such as water for productive use, improving irrigation practices, creating water recharge structures (Image: Pikist)
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