-The Hindu Business Line Rejuvenated, clean and hygienic, they are a sustainable alternative to tube wells As 35-year-old Dharma Devi lowers her bucket into the ancient, stone well to draw drinking water for her family, she grumbles about the quality of the water body. “This one is closest to our fields, so we have to use it. But look at the overgrowth of plants around it and the filth that can fall...

-The Hindu In July 2011, advertisements for deodorants — by Axe, Set Wet Style & Zatak — were pulled off air for being derogatory to women. As the blood bag runs out, a doctor is seen haggling on the phone for more units of A blood group. He concludes the call by saying: 19-20 ka farak hai. A nahin toh AB de do. There is hardly any difference. If you don’t have...

-The Hindu The production of waste in India is growing at an exponential rate. However, the welfare and dignity of the informal workers involved in the stigmatised sector of waste management remains at the bottom of any government’s political agenda. Human society has always produced waste and always will. Waste materials — substances without value — are constantly generated in all production, all distribution and all consumption processes. The time waste spends...

-The Indian Express Delhi lost the window of opportunity to avoid an outbreak because of a governance deficit; first because the state was in election mode and then because of the AAP’s internal squabbles. The past few weeks have witnessed substantial media coverage on the dengue outbreak in Delhi. Heartrending stories of clearly avoidable deaths gave the crisis a human face. Focusing on Delhi, most sought to expose the lack of...

-Livemint.com/PTI According to a World Bank report, the number of people living in extreme poverty around the world is likely to fall to under 10% of the global population in 2015 Washington: India accounted for the largest number of poor people in any country in 2012, but its poverty rate was lowest among countries having large number of poor population, a latest World Bank report has said. According to the report,...