-Down to Earth Aggressive sugarcane farming contaminates land, water The Union government intends to increase the amount of ethanol in the energy mix to lower the country’s dependence on imported oil and carbon footprint, as well as stabilise petrol prices.  India currently blends about 8.5 per cent ethanol in petrol. The government is targeting a 10 per cent ethanol blend by 2022 and a 20 per cent blend (E20) by 2025. E20 can save...

-TheCitizen.in There is no evidence of a population explosion in either India or Uttar Pradesh Women’s groups, health experts and civil society groups have written to the President of India raising concerns and opposing the Draft Uttar Pradesh Population Control Bill 2021. The bill’s main objective is to implement a two-child norm by punishing adults with more than two children, and rewarding those who comply. Following in the steps of BJP-governed Assam, the disincentives...

-Newslaundry.com The figures, disclosed under the RTI Act, show that Network18 was the biggest beneficiary of the UP government’s deep pockets in 2020-21. The Uttar Pradesh government spent a staggering Rs 160.31 crore on advertisements on TV news channels between April 2020 and March 2021, reveals a right to information reply by the state government. The RTI divided the state’s ad expenditure into “national TV news channels” and “regional TV news channels”. The...

-Newsclick.in It also requests the President to declare the proposed Bill unconstitutional as it violates the right to equality guaranteed to all citizens of the country under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. A group of women, women’s organisation, academics, health and legal rights activities, health networks have submitted a memorandum to the President of India opposing the proposed Draft Uttar Pradesh (UP) Population Control, Stabilisation and Welfare Bill, 2021. The...

-Scroll.in Unless the Centre and states act swiftly, the humanitarian crisis is likely to worsen. As India witnesses a record-breaking surge of Covid-19 cases, the Central and state governments have been scrambling to find appropriate responses to handle this health crisis. At a time when the healthcare system is severely strained, many state governments not surprisingly have employed public health or non-pharmaceutical interventions to control the spread of the disease. These interventions...