-The Hindu The project is unique because the design consumes less concrete and the dams last longer than traditional stone masonry ones BELAGAVI: The State government is promoting construction of new generation check dams across natural streams, rivulets and other waterbodies under the MGNREGA programme. Over 5,000 multiple arch buttress check dams (MACD) have come up under MGNREGA, 1,820 in the last two years. The project is unique because the design consumes less...

-Newsclick.in As schools remain closed, poor tribal villagers cannot afford smartphones and computers to aid their children’s online education, leaving this young population facing a precarious future. “I wish doors of the primary school are unlocked for our children after being closed for 16 months and if it does not happen the younger generation will permanently fall out of the education system,” says Dhaneshwari Devi of Dumbi village in Latehar district of...

-Livemint Lounge Climate change is making the monsoon more erratic and violent. Lounge speaks to experts to understand the forces shaping India's season of rains When we talk about climate change impacts, the word that’s often used is “unprecedented”, that which can’t be measured by any given yardstick. Something unprecedented happened over the Western Ghats between 19-25 July. For about a week, a large section of the range, especially in Maharashtra, was...

-Down to Earth The need of the hour is to put halt large hydel-power projects in the Himalayas. Can small hydropower plants offer a sustainable solution? Hydropower is a renewable and non-polluting source of energy. India has an economically exploitable and viable hydropower potential, which is estimated to be about 84,000 megawatt at 60 per cent load factor. It has an installed capacity of 148,701 MW, according to the National Hydroelectric Power...

-Macroscan.com/ Livemint.com There is a common trope, fed especially to generations born after 1991, that economic progress and modernization in India really occurred only after ‘liberalizing’ economic reforms were introduced three decades ago. This is a travesty of the truth. Certainly, conditions for most Indians have improved since that watershed year. Per capita income went up more rapidly than before, life expectancy went up, infant and maternal mortality decreased, income poverty...