-The Hindu A promising area of change for the better In the last article, we considered the climate impact of India’s love for milk (short summary: not good). This time we will consider another aspect of our food: how we cook it. Most readers of this newspaper will perhaps not have more than the slightest acquaintance with wood-fired stoves. Most of us are still wondering whether or not to voluntarily give up...
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Do April conditions in the Pacific Ocean point to a decisive El Nino this year? -Vinson Kurian
-The Hindu Business Line Probably yes, says Chennai blogger tracking weather from 1950 Thiruvananthapuram: When does an El Nino (warming of the east and equatorial Pacific) create widespread rain deficit over India during the monsoon? K Srikanth, Chennai-based blogger and weather enthusiast, has found from a study that between 1950 and 2012, five years have seen 50 per cent or more meteorological divisions suffer deficit rainfall. Carry-over nino “If one observes the pattern, these years...
More »If it doesn’t rain -Shweta Saini & Ashok Gulati
-The Indian Express We need a contingency plan that combines real-time technology with robust insurance and easy credit. On April 22, 2015 the Indian Met Department (IMD) released its first forecast for the upcoming monsoon rains, saying it is likely to be below normal, at 93 per cent of the long period average (LPA). Only a week before that, on April 15, a private forecaster, Skymet, had predicted normal rains (102...
More »The inclusion project -Shamika Ravi
-The Indian Express A little more than a week ago, World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which he called an “extraordinary effort” at financial inclusion. According to the Union finance ministry, India has attained 99 per cent financial inclusion, measured as households’ access to bank accounts. Within three months of launching the PMJDY, the government entered the Guinness...
More »Land, development and democracy -Mihir Shah
-The Hindu India cannot continue with a pattern of industry that yields so few jobs but has such a large ecological footprint. Neither can it be excited by the urban nightmares that its cities are today. The land law debate must be the occasion to talk about these key national agendas The current debate on the land law is important because it affords us a chance to reflect more deeply on the...
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