World Water Day is held annually on March 22 to focus attention on the importance of freshwater and advocate sustainable management of freshwater resources. Each year, the day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater and this year's campaign was on “Water and Food Security.” A large quantity of water, more than most people think, is used for producing the food we eat everyday. Water is a renewable and finite resource...

-The Indian Express India is among the lowest scoring countries on political finance regulation, according to a new report. Global Integrity Report for 2011 released on Friday, indicates that developing as well as developed countries, including the US, are equally struggling to effectively implement money-in-politics rules. Global Integrity is an international non-profit organisation which tracks governance and corruption trends in the world. The Election Commission in India has instituted measures to create enhanced transparency...

-PTI English dailies or high circulation Bengali ones will no longer be available in state-sponsored and aided libraries in West Bengal, according to an official circular. The circular specified eight newspapers which it said would significantly contribute to the development and spread of free thinking among the library users. Listing the eight newspapers published in Bengali Hindi and Urdu, the Department of Mass Education, Extension and Library Services, in a circular dated March...

-The Business Standard   Learning from the jatropha mistake The tropical shrub jatropha curcas, touted a decade ago as a commercially feASIble source of biofuel to alleviate the global energy crisis, seems to have let its proponents down quite comprehensively. Millions of hectares of land in the arid areas of India and in many other ASIan and African countries were turned into jatropha plantations in the expectation that the oil derived from its...

India, like other ASIan countries, has focused its climate change adaptation strategies on rural and urban areas while neglecting the urban fringes, say experts. Peri-urban areas are characterised by haphazard, accelerated expansion and are farthest from bASIc urban services and infrastructure, according to United Nations-Habitat’s ‘The State of ASIan Cities 2010-11’. By 2020, of the projected 4.2 billion urban population of the world, 2.2 billion will be living in ASIa, many...