Blogs

Every winter, Delhi’s air pollution debate follows a familiar script. We look for villains, argue over blame, ignore science and solutions. This year has been no different – except that it has bordered on the absurd. Pollution season opened with the Supreme Court allowing “green crackers”, followed by Delhi govt’s failed cloud-seeding experiment. Soon after…

The Election Commission (EC) makes a list of people who are allowed to vote. This list is called the voter roll. Recently, in West Bengal (and some other states), the EC made a new draft voter roll after a big checking exercise. In this new list, about 8 out of every 100 names from the…

Money pipelines (insurers, banks and asset managers) play a critical role in channelizing money. If we must decarbonise our planet, mitigate pollution and bio-diversity loss, these pipelines ought to be urgently re-laid. Let’s look at three recent stories: Bank of England (BoE) raises the bar for Climate Risk Management expectations from banks and insurers. Three…

Every major climate summit is announced as a turning point. Every few years, the language is reset: last chance, decisive decade, implementation COP, people’s summit. And yet, viewed from a distance, the arc of climate diplomacy since Copenhagen in 2009 looks less like progress than repetition—a cycle of inflated expectations, partial agreements, and carefully managed disappointment. COP30 in Belém…

Ancient Mithila is located in the districts of Darbhanga, Saharsa, Madhubani, and a few others in modern-day Bihar. Indian festivals typically have their origins in mythical, religious, or Puranic stories. The narrative of Sama Chakeva is mentioned in the Skand Puran and Padma Puran. Several accounts of the celebration’s origin can be found in popular…

Two ghastly trends are spreading like an uncontrollable rash across Bengaluru. And no one seems inclined to stop it from spreading further. The spiral strands of bright light wrapped around tree trunks are fixtures at many places, mostly outside restaurants and coffee shops which seem to be springing up like mushrooms in a damp field….

The Gandhi King Plaza at IIC Delhi morphs into a sculpture park  with the works of three eminent sculptors Krishen Khanna, Himmat Shah and Thota Vaikuntam.The exhibition raises a toast to 100 year old Krishen Khanna and becomes the last event for this momentous year. Included are 3 rare works by the bronze and stone master…

China has far more cars and factories than India, yet its air is cleaner. It shows India’s air problem can be fixed WHO says the level of PM2.5 – particles so tiny they can enter your blood through lungs – shouldn’t exceed 5 micrograms per cubic metre of air. That means a typical 10×12 sqft…

China has many more cars and factories than India, but its air is cleaner. This shows that India’s dirty air problem can be fixed. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that very tiny dust particles in the air, called PM2.5, should not be more than 5 units in one cubic metre of air. These particles…

BMC polls? High time, but who has Mumbai on their mind? At last, elections on Jan 15 to BMC, India’s richest municipal corporation, where terms of corporators expired three years ago in 2022. This’ll be the third of the three-phase local body elections underway in Maharashtra after SC directed state poll commission to conclude the…