-Hindustan Times Earlier this week, the ministry released a user manual for online submission of an undertaking on no increase in pollution load due to expansion, on its Parivesh website. The environment ministry has allowed companies operating in several industries, including some polluting ones, to expand capacities on the basis of a self-certification that this will not “increase the pollution load”, creating the room for potential misdeclaration (and misuse), especially in light...

-Outlook India Justice Madan B Lokur cited a recent incident in UP involving a man who tweeted for help-seeking oxygen for his 88-year-old grandfather and the Amethi police booked him. Former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B Lokur on Friday said that sedition cases against people seeking help during the pandemic, and blocking of news and social media channels reporting failure of authorities, is curtailment of freedom of speech and expression. Speaking at...

Forest fires are not just confined to countries like the United States of America (California, 2020), Brazil (Amazon forest, 2019-2020) or Australia (2019-20); they happen every year across many states in India too. Media reports suggest that forest fires have taken place in the recent months in Odisha's Simlipal National Park, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, among other states. Forest fires have also been reported this year in Nagaland-Manipur border (Dzukou...

-The Indian Express Many groups, previously engaged with blood donation, have also stepped up to the task. From fulfilling plasma needs, these volunteers are now working on getting ventilators, oxygen cylinders, hospitals beds and medicines. For over a week, citizen volunteers across the country, from students to social media influencers, have been responding to SOS requests on Twitter from Covid patients seeking oxygen, ventilators, hospital beds, plasma and medicines. The website has become...

-Science.thewire.in Dear Dr Harsh Vardhan,  The ongoing second wave of COVID-19 in India with over 3.32 lakh new cases counted in the last 24 hours is extremely concerning and demands imperative and urgent action. This is necessary in the immediate term as well as through longer term preparedness to mitigate the current medical and humanitarian crisis and to prevent its further escalation. We, concerned public health practitioners urgently request the Government of India...