-Hindustan Times A little over a 100 kms south from the city of Ahmedabad, in the lush green cotton fields, speckled with creamy white cotton buds, locals will regale you with stories of farmers who sold their land and got rich. There is one about a few farmers in a nearby village, who sold their land to a corporate and bought the “chaar bangle waali car” (referring to the Audi logo)....

-The Times of India DEHRADUN: Historian Ramachandra Guha, the author of The Unquiet Woods, a chronicle of the Chipko movement and its continuing relevance, threw his weight behind protesters seeking that the state government desist from taking over tea gardens in Dehradun for the Smart City Project. He tweeted: "A looming land scam in the name of a 'Smart City' in my home town, Dehradun". He told TOI that the proposal...

-Hindustan Times The Chennai floods have thrown up some fundamental flaws in our system of urban planning. Across India, city after city has experienced floods, while some others live with the fear of impending disasters. In Mumbai, flooding was caused by wrong developments at the Bandra estuary and negligence along the Mithi river, and in Uttarakhand the disaster was caused by unplanned regional development and the unholy nexus between the land...

-DNA Indian municipalities can adopt the European Union model to achieve zero landfill disposal Budapest: Today, streets and corners littered with garbage are a common sight in almost every Indian city. What’s more, when municipalities actually pick up the trash, they dump it directly in landfills. Until a few months ago when I moved to Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, I thought this situation was inevitable. Then, I travelled to...

-The Hindu Business Line The new travel policy in Delhi can lead to a commuting disaster if public transport is not able to absorb the surplus Currently, 56.81 lakh two-wheelers and 27.90 lakh cars and jeeps ply on Delhi’s roads, according to the official state government statistics. These figures don’t include the taxis. Which means a total of 84.71 lakh private vehicles. In most cases, one vehicle equates to one person. Let’s say...