By V Santhakumar* A major part of my early academic career was used to study issues of environment and sustainable development. I could not devote much time to these issues after joining Azim Premji Foundation in 2011, due to the involvement in studies on education and development, in general. However, the resumption of teaching `environment … More India’s environmental regulations are of world standard, but their enforcement is very weak

An International Water Management Institute (IWMI) note on recent experiment on turning farmers into solar power producers even as using groundwater for irrigation: From the land that gave India Amul, comes another innovation in sustainable enterprise that promises to double farmers’ incomes and incentivize them to become efficient energy and groundwater users by adopting clean … More IWMI, Dhundi solar power producers’ cooperative double farm income by trying out new experiment

Voluntary organizations mines, minerals & People, Sakhi Trust, Keystone Foundation and Dhaatri Trust, and several community organizations, took part in a state-level consultation on Women Affected by Mining and District Mineral Fund in Karnataka. Joint declaration at the end of consultation: Several mining affected communities, women, NGOs, legal and medical experts came together for a … More Karnataka concern over impact of mining on women, complacence towards District Mining Fund

Right to Information (RTI) papers received from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MEoFCC) have suggested that the Government of India intends to levy monetary penalties for environmental damage, says an analysis by the Centre for Policy Research (CPR)-Namati team: The CPR-Namati team recently received documents related to the proposed amendments to the … More Proposed changes to environmental law impose ‘lesser’ penalty based on size,  turnover of industry

Mahesh Pandya of Paryavaran Mitra, Ahmedabad, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention on the decision to abolish water cess through the Goods and Services (GST) Act. Copy of the letter has been sent to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, Niti Ayog vice chairman Dr Arvind Panagariya, and Union minister of environment, … More Budgetary allocation should be made to state govts to compensate the abolition of water cess

By Hasmukh Dhumadiya* Bakshipunch Housing Society is located in Arambhada in the district of Devbhumi Dwarka in the western Indian state of Gujarat. It is one of the four villages located in the Okha Nagarpalika (i.e. municipality), the other three being Okha, Devpara and Surjkaradi. The diversity of these four “urban” villages is extremely varied … More How Dalits of Bakshipunch in Dwarka, Gujarat, fought, got rid of solid waste disposal site