Kerala’s tranquil stretches of emerald green backwaters and Mumbai are among several locales on the western and eastern coasts facing threat from the rising sea level due to climate change. 

With annual revenues of $7bn and 29,000 employees, ITC is one of India’s leading private companies. It is active in fast moving consumer goods, hotels, paper and packaging, agribusiness, and information technology.

How the internet can improve supply chain efficiency for farmers in India 

The diamond city has taken a step forward to become India’s first ‘eco city’, on the lines of Singapore. After selecting Surat as one of the three cities in the world for a demonstration project for “eco city” development, UK-based charity The Ecological Sequestration Trust (TEST) has decided to spend nearly Rs 50 crore over a period of five years to build a sustainable development model that will be more environment-friendly.

In August 2010, the U.N. Secretary General set up a “High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability,” to formulate a “new vision for sustainable growth and prosperity” for the world. Co-chaired by the Presidents of Finland and South Africa, the panel submitted its detailed report in January 2012. The report is under consideration in the Secretary General’s office, and will be a key input to the upcoming U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development (the so-called ‘Rio+20′ event coming up in June in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

The Indian agriculture sector is currently facing a number of challenges and needs to adopt innovative technologies to achieve sustainability, said experts at a conference on sustainable agriculture practices here Saturday. 

Between 3,900 and 3,000 years ago, the Indus Valley civilisation—one of the world’s biggest civilisations, the size of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia put together—came to an end. Until now, there were no clear answers, only hypotheses. Did invading foreigners destroy the civilisation? Probably there were massive earthquakes that destroyed cities along the Indus and its tributaries?

 

Did rains do the Harappans in? 

The world’s air has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant. Monitoring stations across the Arctic this spring are measuring more than 400 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. The number isn’t quite a surprise, because it’s been rising at an accelerating pace. Years ago, it passed the 350 ppm mark that many scientists say is the highest safe level for carbon dioxide. It now stands globally at 395.

Stemming of global warming and protecting the environment may be discussed and debated at big international forums, and the money being invested in environment-related projects may run into billions, but when farmers rotate their crops and use organic fertilisers, or use traditional water harvesting methods, it is more commonsense than complicated terminology that motivates their actions.

OUTSIDE a village called Mau, in Uttar Pradesh, half a dozen chimneys rise from kilns into a colourless sky. These ovens, six among the 100,000 which turn out the 200 billion bricks made each year in India, are worked by dalits—members of castes once regarded as untouchable. India’s brick kilns are noxious sources of pollution, particularly soot, and working them means a life that is always nasty, frequently brutish and often short. But on top of this social evil is an environmental one. The exhaust from the kilns mixes with diesel.

The National Green Tribunal has sought the reply of Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on a plea against grant of any clearance to any new project in ecologically sensitive Western Ghats. The Tribunal also issued notices to the state governments of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu seeking their replies on the plea for implementation of the report by Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) on the protection and preservation of Western Ghats.