-Down to Earth The region, with eight per cent of India’s total geographical area, has 25 per cent of India’s forest cover India’s northeastern region — comprising Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura — is a unique biodiversity hotspot. The region, however, faces many environmental problems. Successive Indian forest surveys in 2015, 2017 and 2019 reported net deforestation of 628, 630 and 765 square kilometres in the region respectively. This...

-Gaon Connection Gaon Connection brings to you the unseen face of the other India – rural India – with the first-of-its-kind national survey on the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on rural India. In a first-of-its-kind national survey on the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on rural India, Gaon Connection, India’s largest rural media platform, has documented the untold miseries rural citizens faced during the lockdown, ranging from mounting debts, increasing hunger,...

-Down to Earth Water bodies have become even more critical in current times when cities are facing the challenge of rapid, unplanned urbanisation Lakes and wetlands are an important part of urban ecosystem. They perform significant environmental, social and economic functions — from being a source of drinking water and recharging groundwater to supporting biodiversity and providing Livelihoods. Their role becomes even more critical in the present context, when cities are facing the...

-The Hindu The path to a sustained recovery is to improve sentiments in society, using economic tools These are extraordinarily difficult times for our nation and the world. People are gripped with the fear of disease and death from COVID-19. This fear is ubiquitous and transcends geography, religion and class. The inability of nations to control the spread of the novel coronavirus and the lack of a confirmed cure for the disease...

-The Hindu The study noted that wages in the scheme are 25-30% lower than the minimum wages for agricultural workers in most States. One-third of the way through the financial year, government data shows that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme has used up almost half its allocated funds, spending more than ₹48,500 crore out of the expanded ₹1 lakh crore allocation announced following the COVID-19 outbreak. A new...