KEY TRENDS   • Oxfam India's 2023 India Supplement report on poverty and inequality in India reveals that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Following the pandemic in 2019, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away. By 2020, their income share was estimated to have fallen to only 13 per cent of the national income and have less than 3...

-The Hindu Navamy Sudhish reports on the disastrous impact of extreme climate events, rising fuel prices, destructive fishing practices, and overexploitation on livelihoods and biodiversity As dawn breaks, Vitalis slowly glides into undulating waves below an azure sky. With a sparse crew of six, she bobs towards the fishing ground some 10 nautical miles off the shore. The boat returns after five hours, its hold nearly empty. A pall of gloom settles...

-The New Indian Express Arguing that the Fishing Boats and nets pose “a serious security concern and safety hazard to the ships,” Adani called for a ban on fishing in the vicinity of the port. CHENNAI: Adani Group has written to the National Hydrographic Office asking for the waters around its port in Kattupalli to be declared a ‘No Fishing Zone.’ The letter dated August 26, 2019, was written within a year...

-The Hindu The Coastal Regulation Zone notification of 2018 increases the vulnerability of coastal people to climate disasters The National Democratic Alliance government has unleashed several extremely unimaginative developmental policies that target areas that have retained some degree of ecological value to turn them into sites for industrial production. This is despite evidence of the damaging effects of such policies. The latest instance of this is the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification...

-The Economic Times In the afternoon on August 15, Kollam district collector S Karthikeyan received a call from his counterpart in Pathanamthitta, P B Nooh. He requested five dinghies to be sent from rescue operations in flooded areas in his district. It had been raining incessantly for several days all over Kerala. Most of the reservoirs in the state had to be opened in the previous couple of days, leading to floods...