The small sewage solution is finally here
Localised sewage treatment systems for as little as Rs 1 crore and catering to just a few score households are now a reality, making it possible for rapidly expanding urban areas in India to become cleaner and less prone to diseases caused by faecal contamination. A Faecal Sludge and Septage Management
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Goan village takes on big builder and won’t give up
Two months before the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) Gen Z protest against exam paper leaks began at Jantar Mantar, a group of women started a sit-in in Goa’s tranquil village of Carapur in Bicholim taluka. They were opposing a mega project by the Mumbai-based House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoABL). Spread
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Give us our forests, say gram sabhas
Fifteen panchayats in the Kashmir Valley have passed resolutions declaring forests in their vicinity as ‘community’ forests, in line with the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006. The government has reacted with complete silence — leaving the gram sabha decisions impossible to implement. This has irked villagers and forest rights
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Goans want Goa to be the way it once was
Full-page advertisements in national dailies promise beaches, greenery, quietude and everything else that is associated with susegad, the easy Goan way of life. But Goans themselves aren’t quite so sure what they have got left to offer. Decades of property developers carving up Goa have resulted in lasting damage to
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Wetlands in Kashmir are withering
Although there are five wetlands of international repute in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), they don’t attract tourists. Even birds will begin to flee from these wetlands due to their abysmal state, fear environmentalists. All five wetlands are Ramsar sites. “Our wetlands are not vacant lands but living systems that sustain
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Rajasthan’s new law gives gig workers big lift
A state law passed in Rajasthan recently holds out promise for gig workers by ensuring a public record of their jobs and having employers of their services contribute to a government-supervised fund for social security. The gig economy has so far been under the spell of aggregators who have used online
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Poor RTI access in J&K
Jammu and Kashmir was one of the few states to introduce the Right to Information (RTI) Act for bringing transparency in government functioning. However, 13 years after its introduction, most public authorities are wanting in implementation of the Act. A study by advocates Bilal Ahmad Bhat and Syed Iram Quadri reveals
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Roadmap for skill training to provide the young more jobs
The snobbish divide between academics and skills should end and vocational education should be transformed into an aspirational university system closely linked to industry, says a report submitted by a committee of experts set up by the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). The committee’s recommendations have urgency
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‘We face a serious shortage of skilled young people’
India has a growing number of young people ready to enter the workforce and if they can be given the education and skills they need for jobs away from agriculture, a significant opportunity presents itself for boosting economic growth and transforming the country. The window for making the best of
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Elected Sahariya women swing into action
IT is the wedding season in Gugar, a village dominated by the Sahariya tribe in the Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh. But Jayanti has no time to participate in the festivities. She has to resolve problems related to the midday meal in the Bhadora primary school, two kilometres from her
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‘We need a long-term plan, livelihoods in Bundelkhand’
For three years Bundelkhand has been in the news for devastating drought, forcing people to flee their arid land in droves. This monsoon it finally rained copiously. Tanks, ponds and rivers are now brimming with water. The region has received excessive rain this year. The respite is probably temporary. Inclement
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Dead come back to life in Rajasthan
The 100-day Accountability Yatra across Rajasthan led by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) has had an impact. The state government has issued orders to re-verify all one million pensions that had been stopped, including the 688,875 pensions that had been cancelled. From December 2015 to March this year the yatra had
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Govt says NGOs are public servants under Lokpal Act
The relationship between the government and the NGO sector is steadily worsening. Hostility between the two isn’t new. A low-intensity battle went on even during the days of the UPA regime between the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the NGO sector. Now, a new notification issued by the government
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With P-PAS paddy payments are on time in Odisha
Almost 90 per cent of Odisha’s farm produce is paddy. But paddy procurement has always been a sticky problem for successive governments. Every year farmers would block roads and shout slogans because their paddy hadn’t been picked up. Politicians joined them and together they would bring all traffic to a
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J&K panchayats demand 73rd Amendment
Once again panchayat elections are going to be held in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) this coming April. They were last held — after a gap of 33 years — in 2011, when Omar Abdullah of the National Conference was Chief Minister. People had participated enthusiastically with hope in their hearts.
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