-IndiaSpend.com Under emissions trading systems, it pays for companies to install pollution-reducing technology. Surat's pilot scheme enabled participating industrial units to reduce particulate emissions by 24%, an initial analysis has found. Now Ahmedabad and Ludhiana plan to follow suit New Delhi: Last week, China, the world's top greenhouse gas emitter, announced it was opening a national carbon market, a type of emissions trading system. Under the system, industrial units that cannot meet...

-Down to Earth Aggressive sugarcane farming contaminates land, water The Union government intends to increase the amount of ethanol in the energy mix to lower the country’s dependence on imported oil and carbon footprint, as well as stabilise petrol prices.  India currently blends about 8.5 per cent ethanol in petrol. The government is targeting a 10 per cent ethanol blend by 2022 and a 20 per cent blend (E20) by 2025. E20 can save...

-The Tribune The focus on producing surplus and cheap food threatens the survival of the country’s smaller farms, Prince Charles said, adding that if these farms disappear, ‘it will rip the heart out of the British countryside.’ The warning has been sounded at a time when a global business data platform estimates the number of employed and self-employed farmers in the UK to have come down to just 1.07 lakh. IN a...

-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...

-Down to Earth It is critical for us to adopt the circular water management model of treating and rejuvenating wastewater at source, along with efficient water management strategies to reduce water demand India’s agricultural exports registered a growth of 17.34 per cent, garnering $41.25 billion in foreign exchange for 2020-21 despite the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. In rupee terms, this is equivalent to Rs 3.05 lakh crore. For a government faced...