-The Indian Express It is heartening that several ministries and companies have responded with alacrity to the prime minister's call for the construction of toilets. It is indicative not only of the PM's authority but also of the fact that the concern is widely shared. The ministry of rural development has proposed to increase the allocation for constructing individual, school, anganwadi and community toilets in rural areas. But it has proposed to...

-AFP Katra Shahadatganj: Decorated with marigolds and ribbons, 108 toilets unveiled in a tragedy-hit village are a small step in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's push to end open-air defecation for impoverished Indian women. The spotlessly clean toilets were donated on Sunday to the village in northern Uttar Pradesh, where scared and vulnerable women had long been forced to trek nightly into the fields to relieve themselves. "I believe no woman must lose...

-The Telegraph In her recent book, Green Wars, the environmental journalist Bahar Dutt, writes: "The editor of a leading media house, everytime I pitched a green story, would invariably complain: ‘Environmentalism is stalling growth; all I am interested in is double-digit growth for this country.'" The idea that environmental protection and economic progress are at odds is widely held among India's elite. It is shared by newspaper editors, economists, businessmen, and, not...

-The Asian Age New Delhi: With traces of toxic metals found in fruits and vegetables grown along the banks of the Yamuna river, the city administration is likely to ban farming with contaminated water from the river. The national capital receives 95 per cent of its vegetables and fruits from other states. Of the remaining five per cent, half of these are grown using the Yamuna's polluted water. As the move...

-Down to Earth Five out of 20 world's most water-stressed cities are in India, says study Months after being named the city with world's most polluted air, here comes another blow for Delhi. A study, carried out by non-profit The Nature Conservancy, says that India's capital city is world's second most water-stressed city, just behind Tokyo. The study was carried out after surveying the water infrastructure of world's 500 cities with population of...