-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Numerous solar energy startups are delivering cheap and accessible power to rural India. These venTures have come up with solutions - ranging from solar off-grids to solar-powered home systems - that are not just cost-effective but also less toxic than traditional fuels like kerosene. "In a country, where large swathes of population have little or unreliable access to basic power, off grids is the solution," said Shyam...

-Live Mint ‘Give me any job... but please take me out of this hell', says 57-year-old Saraswati, a manual scavenger New Delhi: Saraswati doesn't remember the last time her bare hands touched the statues of the gods lying on a shaky wooden plank in a corner of her one-room house in Farrukhnagar village of Ghaziabad district. She doesn't remember the last time she prayed or fasted. She says every part of her body...

-The Hindu The power of the bicycles to confer economic and social freedom even in the age of the automobile remains undiminished. Bihar is using it to cut the dropout rate for girls. Bicycles and safe roads are a winning combination. While she was on her way to school one morning, Smriti's bicycle brushed against a speeding truck, and she fell to the ground. After a few stitches on her injured elbow,...

-The Times of India The report issued on September 27 by the UN's intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) may sound similar to the one issued five years ago - after all, it says that humanity is causing climate change, though with more certainty. But on two key aspects this report has categorically said what was never said before. The first is that the carbon accumulation in the atmosphere and resulting global...

-The Hindu Gram sabha at Taraimarh adjourned due to lack of quorum as villagers stay away Taraimarh (Chhattisgarh): On a wet and windy SaTurday evening nearly 350 km north of the State capital, Raipur, a non-descript village registered a historic victory against Bharat Alumunium Company Ltd (Balco), an affiliate of India focused global miner, Vedanta. While the Dongria Kondhs Turned up in large numbers at the gram sabha to emphatically reject Vedanta's...