CATEGORIES

Not even a glimmer

Epidemic of chronic diseases, social inequalities and covid-19 will worsen the future of global health

Natural capitalists

A village in Assam escapes unemployment and food scarcity by reviving an ancient food forestry practice

Bracing For An ‘Improved' WTO

The World Trade Organization needs an overhaul, but the reform will leave even less space for developing nations

Meal Of Indulgence, Everywhere!

Using local ingredients in baking can make food healthier

Milk, Or Not?

A debate rages as India’s top food regulator releases a draft regulation restraining plant-based milk from using the word “milk” on their labels

TEA POINTS

REKINDLING THE BRITISH-ERA ROMANCE WITH TEA CAN HELP UTTARAKHAND REVITALISE ITS ECONOMY AND RESOLVE THE LONG DRAWN-OUT MIGRATION CRISIS

People before profit

A Delhi-based clean energy services firm provides solar power and irrigation facility, with flexible repayment option, to returning informal workers in Uttar Pradesh

FACE OFF

Facial recognition has become a frontline policing tool in India amid fears that it is prone to errors and allows the government to expand surveillance without much oversight

CHAOS IN THE MANDIS

The first kharif season after deregulation of the agriculture market is underway. The government has started procuring paddy at minimum support price, even before the designated period. For the largest private trade in India, this is a time of anxiety. How is the market treating farmers? SHAGUN KAPIL visits mandis in Punjab and Haryana only to find that the market has become even more unfavourable for farmers

“Multiple lakes beneath glaciers on Mars”

Mars’ south pole will be one of the prime sites for setting up a base if humans ever try that. In a region named Ultimi Scopuli, researchers have found three salty waterbodies underneath icy glaciers, giving a boost to prospects of both microbial extraterrestrial life on Mars and its habitability for humans. The results, published in Nature Astronomy on September 28, came from the analysis of data from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) aboard the Mars Express spacecraft launched by European Space Agency in 2003. MARSIS sends out radio waves onto the Martian surface and interprets the waves that are reflected back. The scientists used the same processing techniques as they do to find liquid lakes beneath the ice sheets near the Earth’s poles. The team had found evidence of a 19-km-wide single saltwater body in 2018 through 29 observations made between 2012 and 2015. Now they have found stronger evidence from 105 additional observations for the existence of the larger waterbody and three smaller waterbodies that surround it. We are quite confident of our find, says ELENA PETTINELLI, professor of mathematics and physics at the Roma Tre University in Rome, Italy, and co-author of the research paper, in an interview with AKSHIT SANGOMLA. Excerpts:

BORDERLINE UNETHICAL

Should we short-circuit trials of experimental COVID-19 vaccines?

All talk, no show

Countries may have announced grandiose plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but they are unlikely to meet the global target to become carbon neutral by 2050

Private Players Run Almost All Coal Mines With PSUs.

Mine Developer and Operators (MDOS) have been running 13 of the 14 operational coal mines allotted to various public sector undertakings (PSUS) since 2015.

How Safe Is Your Hand Sanitiser?

The one product that has made its way into most homes across the world, including India, in the wake of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, is hand sanitisers.

Time ticking for coal

Business-as-usual will not work to combat climate crisis. Difficult targets must be set to reduce carbon emissions

HOPE@VACCINE

Global negative GDP could hasten the discovery of the world’s fastest vaccine. But what are the perils?

ETCHED IN FOSSIL

Prehistoric climate change damaged the ozone layer and led to a mass extinction

ADVANTAGE INDUSTRY

Government after government has diluted the environment impact assessment process, effectively making it a ritual practised without any reverence to the environment. The draft Environment Impact Assessment 2020 Notification is the latest proof. An analysis by NIVIT KUMAR YADAV & ISHITA GARG

Expect A Late Monsoon Withdrawal Due To La Niña

There is over 50 per cent chance of a La Niña condition in the equatorial Pacific Ocean during the autumn of 2020, suggests the latest update by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It adds that once formed, the La Niña condition might continue into the winter season.

Now Money Decides Lives

As COVID-19 makes inroads in rural India, state GDP losses will kill more people than the disease

How much is zero?

Paddy farmers of Andhra Pradesh are saving water, energy and money by adopting Zero Budget Natural Farming

THE HILLS ARE COMING ALIVE

Deserted villages of Uttarakhand are springing back to life as residents return to the hills after decades. The state government has announced several schemes to retain them, but has it reached people?

More action than words

Rajesh Choubey has stopped ration shops from pilfering, sensitised people and assisted them in finding livelihood during the pandemic

Only 35% cities partially segregate waste at source

THE GOVERNMENT recently released the Swachh Survekshan 2020 report, with much fanfare.

Supercharged water

HERBS CAN TURN AN AVERAGE GLASS OF WATER INTO A FRAGRANT, HEALTHY BEVERAGE

From where did the tiger come?

GENETICISTS, HISTORIANS AND EXPERTS HAVE SEVERAL THEORIES ON THE BIG CAT

Left to starve

The COVID-19 lockdown is likely to render millions of children in India malnourished

619,097

This is the number of assets created across rural India in the four months since the COVID-19 lockdown to tap natural resources. This is also the potential of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA), a programme envisaged to alleviate poverty among the rural people by using their only capital—labour. So, what has helped the program that over the years got mired in controversies make a comeback? Down To Earth travels to districts that witnessed reverse migration on a large scale to understand this transition. They find a script that can change the rural-urban dynamics forever. Demand for MGNREGA works shows an unprecedented spike—more than 30 million households have asked for employment for three consecutive months. Governments are harnessing the surplus labour to create assets that will ensure livelihood even after people are weaned off the wage support. People too are using this opportunity to pick up the pieces of their lives in villages they had once left.

World Sees Spike In Polio Cases Due To Oral Vaccine

The fight against polio through massive vaccination efforts since 1988 has helped reduce the number of cases by more than 99 per cent worldwide—but there remains a worry. Instances of vaccinederived poliovirus (VDPV), caused by the virus strains used in the vaccine by regaining their ability to cause the paralytic disease, have seen a spike between 2010 and 2019.

“Communities need more benefits for conservation”

V B MATHUR, CHAIRPERSON OF THE NATIONAL BIODIVERSITY AUTHORITY, CHENNAI, TALKS TO ABHILASH KHANDEKAR ON THE COMING OF AGE OF THE COUNTRY’S BIODIVERSITY GOVERNANCE. EXCERPTS