CATEGORIES

SILENT FAMINE

For the past 50 years, the country has introduced high-yielding rice and wheat varieties at breakneck speed to achieve food security. A study led by scientists with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has for the first time looked at the food value of these modern-bred grains, and delivers some dire warnings: the food grains that we eat have lost food value; instead they are accumulating toxins. Worse, by 2040, the grains will become so \"impoverished\" that they would worsen the country's growing burden of non-communicable diseases.

Misplaced focus

The fictional series based on the Bhopal gas disaster falls miserably short in its attempt to be a riveting survival drama

Patents zoom, but where is the innovation?

India is among the top patent filers globally, but it has yet to make its mark in any breakthrough technologies

Saved by sponge

As oceans warm up, women in Zanzibar switch from seaweed to climate-resilient sponge farming to stay afloat

Conquest of lantana

A decade-long initiative in Madhya Pradesh to reclaim land overrun by lantana helps residents restart agriculture and restore native biodiversity

Highs and lows

As COP28 enters its final week, Parties have operationalised historic loss and damage fund and agreed to the health impacts of climate change, but have failed to reach a consensus on key issues of climate finance, adaptation goal and global stocktake

Electric idea

College students in Delhi make and sell solar-powered lamps to promote use of renewable energy

THE ODD FLOWER

Onion flower stalks can provide a distinct taste and flavour to food

RAISED ON EXHAUST

Link between air pollution and childhood diseases, including cancer, warrants concern

Green equations

A first-of-its-kind index to evaluate gross environment product

Costly trade-off

A reduction in the planet's sulphur dioxide emissions could be behind the recent spike in global warming

POOR SUBSTITUTES

The World Health Organization's announcement on aspartame being possibly carcinogenic to humans has reignited the debate on health hazards of sugar substitutes. Not only is the evidence on safety of sugar substitutes sketchy, their role in controlling blood sugar levels, too, remains inconclusive. On the contrary, studies increasingly indicate that sugar substitutes contribute to factors that lead to cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and, quite ironically, diabetes.

RUMOURED FORBIDDEN

It's time to banish the fears around khesari dal, or grass pea, and relish the nutritious legume

CLEAR OPTIONS

India is adopting new sewage wastewater treatment technologies that are more efficient, but it must choose the ones that best meet local needs

Post-pandemic blues of predatory pharma

Huge stockpiles of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, along with a steep drop in revenues, tell a sorry tale of Big Pharma's greed

Homegrown benefit

A shift from exotic and crossbred cattle to indigenous breeds that are better adapted to changing climate and resistant to diseases will help India's dairy sector stay profitable and sustainable

RUNNING OUT OF TIME

THE DRYING up of the Amazon ecosystem is a sign of a planetary crisis. The rainforests are one of the nine tipping points or thresholds in the climate system that, if crossed, would cause irreversible changes.

A SINK BECOMES SOURCE

Droughts kill billions of trees in the Amazon like no other extreme event

THE AMAZONIAN DRYING

The historic drought in the Amazon indicates that the rain forest is approaching an irreversible tipping point. The results would be disastrous for the world

Drop in the bucket

Adaptation finance needed by developing countries is 10-18 times as high as current flows, says the latest UNEP report

Delayed by decades

Centre-state tussle and bureaucratic incompe-tencies withhold compensation for land acquisition in Jharkhand's coal belt

Known unknowns

India's apex food regulator has no data on presence of genetically modified organisms in fresh produce imported by the country over past five years VIVEK MISHRA NEW DELHI

Scientist, activist, advisor

Saleemul Huq championed locally led climate adaptation and greater involvement of all stakeholders in global discourse

Vehicles behind Delhi's poor air quality

ON NOVEMBER 5, 2023, three Indian cities— Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata—recorded some of the worst air quality levels in the world.

Lending voice

A journalist in Malkangiri, Odisha, helps tribal girls and women take charge of their own health and share their stories ISHAN KUKRETI

Claudia Goldin on Career and Family

A century ago, it was a given that a woman with a college degree had to choose between having a career and a family. Today, there are more female college graduates than ever before, and more women want to have a career and family, yet challenges persist at work and at home. Claudia Goldin, who has won this year's Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences traces in her book Career and Family how generations of women have responded to the problem of balancing career and family as the twentieth century experienced a sea change in gender equality, revealing why true equity for dual career couples remains frustratingly out of reach.

COLLABORATE TO RESTORE

Delhi is making efforts to bring back the Sahibi, but the river's true rejuvenation will require its revival in the neighbouring states of Rajasthan and Haryana as well

Devastating societies through war and drugs

Generics giant Teva is top among drug firms found guilty of fuelling the US opioid crisis, agrees to pay $4.25 billion

Headed for failure

Almost 60% of low-income countries are struggling to repay their loans. This is hurting their development and climate preparedness

CAUGHT UNAWARES

In a rapidly changing climate, early warning systems are a critical, cost-effective way of protecting people from extreme weather. But effective implementation of the system to protect every person on Earth by 2027, as envisioned by the UN, is a huge task. Countries highly vulnerable to climate change impacts lack the know-how or finance. Technologies, too, need upgrading to accurately predict disasters.