-TheWire.in The number of people needing technical and vocational education is at least 20 million per year, but the system is barely churning out 5 million per year. In India until the middle of the 2000’s, employers were hardly interested in training within their own enterprises, let alone the system outside their enterprises. However, rapid GDP growth during those years led to a serious shortage of skilled staff. The government of India...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com For the past decade state governments have launched a series of Internet-based initiatives to deliver services more efficiently. Technology has been seen as the best way of bypassing red tape and corruption in the system to reach the poor directly with benefits. Beneficiaries are identified through biometrics and a series of tech solutions like smart cards, micro ATMs and so on. The result of these efforts is that India is...

-FirstPost.com Water, water, everywhere. That is the thought that strikes you first, as you step into the rural areas of drought-hit Latur. Branded, chilled water bottles pop out of nowhere, when you ask for some drinking water in the middle of a modest village. You notice that a familiar looking label actually hides a different, local brand underneath. Lots of households around use drinking water cans, again carrying those local brands. And...

-The Indian Express At present, Delhi has four landfill sites and three of them operate beyond capacity. New Delhi: In a city where population increases at about 3.5 per cent per annum and the per capita waste generated rises by 1.3 per cent in the same period, devoting additional land to efficiently treat and dispose of the garbage generated is posing a problem. Delhi needs more than 1,500 acres for the purpose,...

Situation alarming: More than one-third population hit by drought   The country is facing severe drought for the second consecutive year. Conservative estimates from official sources show that over a quarter of rural habitations are facing drinking water scarcity. Although both India Meteorological Department and Skymet have predicted a more than normal rainfall during June-September, 2016, the water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country has declined from 22 percent...