-CivilSocietyOnline.com Kasargod: In 2000, Pidamale Govinda Bhat, 63, a middle-class areca nut farmer, rigged up an experimental check dam with sand and plastic sheets. For decades, his family had been constructing a temporary check dam across the Okkethoor river with stones and soil to irrigate their farm. “The government constructed a vented dam for us in place of our temporary check dam,” recalls Bhat. “But the sarkari dam leaked and leaked. By...

-The Indian Express Delhi’s slums house people whose work makes the lives of its better-off citizens easier but they themselves offer the worst of living conditions. Lakhs of people are denied the basic need for a toilet, breeding indignity and infections. The city’ urban shelter agency DUSIB’s report on how to make the city slum-free is a challenge for any government, especially one elected on a pro-poor agenda. The Indian Express...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Women and Child Development The Union Minister of Women and Child Development , Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi held a meeting with Ms Melinda Gates , co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in New Delhi today.The discussions centred arounda potential partnership to address India’s burden of maternal and childhood malnutrition, among other shared priorities. Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi spoke about the plans to launch the National...

-The Times of India PUNE: A city-based researcher has developed an eco-friendly toilet which can convert dry human faeces into humus (organic matter) and utilize urine for vermicomposting in an odourless, pollution-free manner. "The system does not require extra water or an expensive drainage system. It will especially help green-zones, parks and agri-rich areas where water is scarce," said Mohan Ketkar, who has conceptualized and developed the eco-friendly toilet. Ketkar worked for the...

-Newsclick.in The government in India continues to kow-tow to corporate lobbies at the cost of the environment and public health including occupational health. While always an integral part of ruling class politics in India, as witnessed in the seemingly never-ending saga of the Bhopal Gas Disaster, this has reached new heights under the BJP government led by PM Narendra Modi which is rapidly dismantling even the already weak environmental regulatory structure....