This three-part series reports the advances in agricultural technology in India. Part 1 discusses the emerging technologies in the pre-sowing stage. Part 2 and Part 3 throw light on the…
India is gearing up for its six-week general election, scheduled to begin later in April. But it must also brace for an especially hot summer, the India Meteorological Department (IMD)…
In the right conditions, a liana — a long-stemmed, woody vine — can opportunistically ride up a tree and smother it as it climbs to the forest canopy. The plant…
Sajida Sheikh’s job is to stitch wads of raw fabric that come for dyeing at Gujarat ECO Textile Park, a textile cluster at Palsana, in Gujarat’s Surat district. For 17…
At the turn of the millennium, Kodaikanal, a quaint South Indian hill town in Tamil Nadu, found itself engulfed in angst as protests erupted across various parts of the town.…
Increasing amounts of black carbon in the atmosphere are leading to extreme rainfall in Asian countries such as India and China, suggested a policy brief from the Center for Study…
During the Northeast Monsoon (NEM) of 2023, Tirunelveli, a coastal district in the southern part of Tamil Nadu witnessed record-breaking rainfall of 123.9 cm. This observation was 146% higher than…
"In our childhood, the resonating sound of ulakkai (a stone pestle) grinding cholam (white corn) was our daily wake-up call. Our mother would sift it to make chola kali (corn…
On December 13, COP28 concluded with a ‘historic’ consensus on transitioning from fossil fuels, and Sultan Al Jaber, the president of COP28, emerged as a key figure in this successful…
Almost 150 years ago, Christmas, aboard the SMS Gazelle, a mid-sized German warship that circumnavigated the globe in the late 19th century, was a day of activity. The vessel’s naval…
The role of trade and trade policy is increasingly being considered in discussions to further climate action. Trade will be in the spotlight at the upcoming UN climate conference in…
The Nilgiri Hills — A Kaleidoscope of People, Culture and Nature, edited by anthropologist Paul Hockings begins with what's now a pressing concern in the landscape, its changing nature. So…
Climate change is undermining the achievement of nearly all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a new report by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has said, which adds that existing science…
In the village Tuna that lies by the sea in Kachchh, Gujarat, Razak bhai sat watching the rain clouds gather in the sky. Razak bhai is a potter and one…
It was a long day here, in Kachchh, when we were out in search of Gujarat’s indigenous breed of sheep, the Patanwadi. There are less than 5,000 sheep of this…
When the Earth Commission released its third paper on earth system boundaries in 2023, one element stood out as distinct — the introduction of “justice” into the definition of planetary…
As the Karnataka assembly elections captured the nation's attention, another equally important democratic process was taking place silently in Uttar Pradesh's 760 municipalities. The state held its municipal council elections…
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has focussed on climate change as the primary theme in its Report on Currency and Finance (RCF) for 2022-23, a theme-based annual report on…
Every few weeks, 53-year-old agricultural entomologist Rajendra Hegde addresses a large gathering in Bengaluru, where he puts forth a proposition: imagine walking up to your rooftops or balconies and foraging…
Armed with the idea that shifting cultivation is primitive and unsustainable, based on a certain narrative she was exposed to in the academic world, Assam-born researcher Joli Rumi Borah had…