-Huffington Post blog A result of dysfunctional municipal planning and governance. The flooding woes of Indian cities have hit the headlines yet again, with Mumbai, Chandigarh, Bengaluru and Agartala being among the worst affected. As for the response to these crises—there is enough evidence to indicate that the patchwork solutions that have been employed will work like steroid shots that might mitigate the issue temporarily, but worsen it in the future. Planning in...

-The Hindu Business Line Abuse of antibiotics, poor waste management main reasons: CSE study New Delhi: The unfettered use of antibiotics to keep chicks healthy in poultry farms has led to a proliferation in bacteria, which are resistant to the best of drugs used for fighting infections, according to a new study. An analysis carried out by the New Delhi-based NGO, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said the soil in and around...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government has stated that safety standards in the cleaning of sewer and septic tanks are alarmingly low across the country in the wake of 10 people falling prey to cleaning sewers in a month in the capital. A review of the "Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013" (MS Act) has found that there is no information available about the cases...

-The Indian Express Out of all those engaged in manually removing human excreta, 95 per cent are women. While men are paid in cash, women are mostly paid in kind. Meerut And New Delhi: “I started my work as a manual scavenger after my marriage,” says Premi, as she dabs her tears with her faded yellow cotton dupatta. She’s known as ‘Budhiya’ (an old woman) in the Radhna Inayatpur village in Mawana...

-The Hindu How Tiruppur, India’s knitwear hub, is now weaving a green cover for the entire district We moved this tree 15 km on a truck along the stretch between Avinashi and Avinashipalayam.” V. Mahendran points to a hulking tree trunk. “The operation took us nine hours. Even with its branches and most of its canopy chopped off, it weighed more than 40 tonnes.” We are at the Tiruppur Collectorate, and Mahendran,...