News
Climate Change
- Kaveri dispute
- The Sunday Read: On World Environment Day: By the rivers dark
- Living with floods: Bengaluru infrastructure cries for urgent reforms
- Thanks to NGT, Varthur Lake set for a clean-up
- BWSSB plugs leakage at STP, checks flow of sewage into Jakkur lake
- NGT team’s visit hurries up Bellandur Lake clean-up
- Bengaluru Will be Unliveable in Five Years, Warns IISC study
- India's Bellandur Lake: A recipe for disaster
- Bengaluru's Dying Lakes; 90% Polluted, 98% Encroached, Only 4 In Good Condition
- The stink of death in Bellandur Lake
- Rising fish yield in Bengaluru lakes sparks biodiversity concerns
- Recurring fish deaths in Bengaluru lakes signs of irresponsible governance: IISc
- Traffic, water shortages, now foods: the slow death of India's tech hub?
- After Cape Town, Bengaluru set to face major water crisis: Atrocious state of Bellandur Lake a result of apathy by authorities
- India: Transport, domestic sectors ahead in greenhouse gas emissions
- Trees can raise groundwater table
- Rapid urbanisation killing Bengaluru?
- Waste to or of energy?
- Paradise lost! Drastic fall in forest cover of Western Ghats; only 10% to remain in coming decade
- How a 2 Hectare Forest in Bangalore’s Heart Has Lowered Temperatures and Raised Its Water Table
- Bengaluru feels the heat as max summer temperature rises
- Wetlands in Karnataka provide benefits worth Rs 284 billion annually: IISc expert
- Ecological, economic value of water bodies in Karnataka is Rs 7.32 lakh crore
- Watch Western Ghats eco-status live now
- The dirty truth of our lakes
- Western Ghats lost 5% evergreen forest cover, shows analysis
- Over 90,000 sq km of Western Ghats ecologically fragile: IISc analysis
- IISc launches portal for Western Ghats management
- Climate change will aggravate ongoing river dispute, Govt needs to approach this scientifically: IISc research expert
- India’s Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Emissions Far Below World Average: UNEP Report
- 9 Charts Explain Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Country
- How each country’s emissions and climate pledges compare
- Emissions in India, 6 other nations top pre-Covid levels
- Who should pay for climate damage?
Freshwater
- Aqua crisis: Editorial on potable water scarcity in India
- Delhi stares at drinking water shortage as 3 plants closed
- Mapping Water Scarcity across Major States of India
- Meanwhile... India’s silent water crisis
- The importance of water in agriculture
- Water shortage: Switzerland’s blue gold is under pressure
- India’s farms have a far worse scorecard on the water use than IPL
- How we broke the water cycle and can no longer rely on rain to fall
- India Likely To Be Severely Affected By Water Scarcity By 2050: UN Report
- Himachal Pradesh: Amid heavy downpour, Shimla faces drinking water scarcity
- India’s potential to address water scarcity through wastewater treatment and reuse
- Global fresh water demand will outstrip supply by 40% by 2030, say experts
- Droughts and Deficits: Unlocking the Potential of Green Water
Land use
- Economic Survey: Average monthly income per agricultural household at Rs 10,218
- India No. 1 in population, No. 7 in size in world, but how much land do you hold?
- Madhya Pradesh: A model state for agricultural development
Biogeochemical cycle
- Underwater Volcanic Activity Could Impact Global Biogeochemical Cycles
- Carbon ‘bank’ at risk of failure: Scientists trying to determine what will happen to massive carbon stores as rainforests dry out
- The greenhouse gas burden of inland waters
- Beyond boundaries: Earth’s water cycle is being bent to breaking point
- How Does Deforestation Affect the Carbon Cycle?
- Sandstorms, an increasingly common global disaster exacerbated by land degradation
- Stanford research finds that diversity of large animals plays an important role in carbon cycle
- Solar radiation accelerates carbon cycle process of temperate forest ecosystems
- Colossal to De-Extinct the Thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian Tiger, an Iconic Australian Marsupial That Has Been Extinct Since 1936
- Permafrost melting a growing concern
- Use of excessive nitrogen fertiliser in wheat crops linked to celiac disease
- Fertiliser, seed dealers speak for missing agri officials in Punjab, push input costs higher
- How our detergent footprint is polluting aquatic ecosystems
- Punjab tops in use of chemical fertilisers
- Stoichiometric mismatch between phytoplankton and zooplankton under climate warming and eutrophication
- Study: More than 90% of global aquaculture faces substantial risk from effects of climate change
Ecological footprint
- Ecological footprint per capita worldwide in 2017, by region (in global hectares per capita)
- Earth Overshoot Day: India a role model for global consumption
- Second Nature
- Is your footprint green enough?
- We would need 1.7 Earths to make our consumption sustainable
- Land use change major cause behind biodiversity loss, finds WWF report
- Kuwait, Qatar, UAE top world’s worst wasters: WWF report
- Kailash-Mansarovar: What Is the Ecological Footprint of Isha Foundation's 'Sacred Walk'?
- Earth Overshoot Day: India’s Battle for Ecological Balance
- New study highlights ecological risks of EV value chain, calls for sustainability
- Financial sector should respect planetary boundaries.
- Research reveals food is primary driver of the EU-27's outsized ecological footprint
- Ecological Footprint by Country 2023
- Raichur villages blame chemical firms for ailments
- Raichur's problem of plenty
- UAE’s most major environmental challenges addressed
- India's rice export ban revives the conversation about the crop's vast ecological footprint
- New study highlights ecological risks of EV value chain, calls for sustainability
- Circular Economy Action Plan: Achieving plan's ambitious goals means investing in research and innovation
- Land use change major cause behind biodiversity loss, finds WWF report
- Living with a One Planet Ecological Footprint
- Countries With the Largest Ecological Footprints
Material footprint
- Raw material requirements for reducing global poverty calculated by weight for the first time
- England’s material footprint shrinks by 35% from 2004
- How India is positioned to achieve UN’s sustainable consumption and production goal
- EU’s material consumption: 14.1 tonnes per person in 2021
- Can India become shipping’s next China this decade?
- EU’s domestic material consumption remained stable in 2022
- India Q4 GDP LIVE updates: Q4 GDP growth of 6.1% beats estimates, overall FY23 growth at 7.2%; what to expect ahead?
- Domestic Cement Consumption Around 235 KG Per Capita Against Global Average of 520 KG Per Capita
- Indonesia’s Coal Emissions at Record High, Up 33% in 2022
- Safeguard our future’: Australia passes law capping oil and gas emissions for the first time
- India achieved its target of producing energy through non-fossil fuel sources ahead of schedule: R K Singh
- India Chases Clean Energy, but Economic Goals Put Coal First
- India’s fossil fuel burn to surge as heatwave triggers peak power demand: S&P
- View: Why we’re all to blame for China and India’s ‘filthy’ CO2 emissions
Ocean Acidification
- US-Canada Great Lakes turning acidic: Study seeks to establish details
- Ocean acidification observed in Arabian Sea, say Indian scientists
- Supporting Ocean Acidification Initiatives in the Western Indian Ocean
- Ocean carbon observing system inadequate and immature: Report
- Fast-melting Arctic ice is turning the ocean acidic, threatening life
- Oceans are fast losing oxygen, putting marine habitat at greater risk
- Ocean acidification in Bay of Bengal is now being monitored by global satellite network
- Climate researchers color-code stages of ocean acidification to illustrate changes
- Why are the oceans increasingly acidic?
- Ocean acidification endangers ecologically important seaweed
- Ocean Acidification Set To Triple by 2100—What This Means for the US Coast
- The threat of ocean acidification
- Acidifying oceans will cause a diversity and survival crisis for microscopic marine organisms, finds research
- Ocean Acidification Could Break a Vital Backbone of Coastal Ecosystems
- Satellites highlight a 30-year rise in ocean acidification
Ozone Depletion
- Bengaluru: NGT wants to assess carbon footprint of city’s glass-facade buildings
- Welcome to Chandigarh, the AC city
- A 1980s ban on CFCs to heal the ozone layer is also shaving degrees off global warming, study says
- Global warming would be 2.5°C higher without 1980s CFC ban, study finds
- Chinese industrial areas identified as a major source of illegal ozone-depleting CFC gas
- The Drastic Steps Irvine, California, Took To Reduce Ozone-Depleting Chemicals
- CFCs were banned to protect the ozone layer. Replacement HFCs are just as bad for environment.
- Ozone-depleting CFCs hit record despite ban: Study
- India has successfully phased out production, consumption of ozone depleting substances: MoS Choubey
- How supermarket freezers are heating the planet, and how they could change
- NASA Data Aids Ozone Hole’s Journey to Recovery
- AC Feels Great, But It’s Terrible for the Planet. Here’s How to Fix That
- How Bad Is Your Air-Conditioner for the Planet?
Biodiversity Loss
- List of 11 Critically Endangered Species of Birds in India
- National Endangered Species Day: A tale of the Great Indian Bustard, from losing out on National Bird status to now, The Lost One
- Elephant habitat in the Indian subcontinent to shift towards the Himalayas, says study
- The cost of invasive species bears heavy on Indian economy, finds study
- Protecting Lands Slows Biodiversity Loss Among Vertebrates by Five Times
- Biodiversity loss: 37,000 ‘alien species’ introduced by human activities, says report
- Bending the curve of biodiversity loss
- Decreasing biodiversity may promote spread of viruses
- Damselfly species found in Western Ghats named after climate impact on insects
- Western Ghats lost 5% evergreen forest cover, shows analysis
- As tourism booms in India’s Western Ghats, habitat loss pushes endangered frogs to the edge
- Scorched Goa’s biodiversity may take years to regenerate
- Shrinking biodiversity: 69% drop in wildlife populations in nearly 5 decades, shows report
- Ecological ‘holocaust’: Women saving India’s Western Ghats forest
- Western Ghats’s biodiversity faces threat of encroachment: UN body
- Rise In Carbon Footprint At Western Ghats Due To Deforestation Is The Cause Of Floods In Kerala, Karnataka
- Western Ghats at risk: Deforestation data drives home point again
- Endemic Western Ghats flycatchers could lose third of their range due to climate change: Study
- Invasive, Exotic Tree Species Are Threatening the Animals of the Western Ghats
- Water-sharing protests disrupt India's tech hub of Bengaluru
- Mekedatu project threatens to submerge chunks of Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary
- Mekedatu to submerge Karnataka forests worth Rs 81.6 bn
- IISc research estimates Mekedatu project may destroy forests worth Rs 8,160 crore
Atmospheric Pollution
- Air pollution control measures under revised GRAP to kick in from Oct 1 in Gurgaon
- Decline Recorded in India’s Air Pollution – But Not When it Matters Most
- A bigger threat than cigarettes: How air pollution is cutting short lives by up to five years in South Asia
- Atmospheric pollution increasing in rural India, say IIT-KGP researchers
- Less than 1% of India's water bodies monitored by central, state pollution control boards
- Climate change and riverine pollution: The need for high-quality environment data in India
- Gujarat has highest number of 'highly polluted' river stretches in India
- Reclaiming wastewater: A sustainable path for water consumption in India
- Express View on pollution shortening Indian lives: A toll of air
- Fewer polluted river stretches but worst stretches unchanged
- Chennai's Cooum, Gujarat's Sabarmati Rivers Among the Two Most Polluted Rivers in India: CPCB Report
- Kochi: NGT suspects high river water pollution during this monsoon
- Sabarmati second most polluted river in India
- 2 Ghaggar stretches in Punjab, Haryana among most polluted in India
- 80% of River Water Unusable in India: Central Pollution Control Board
- Diseases, mosquitoes, filth’: India’s urban centres are choking on sewage and waste
- India Had Eighth-Worst Air Pollution in 2022: Report
Education
- Illiteracy still a global problem with 750 million who ``can't read and write
- Literacy rate in Philippines grows to 97%
- 40% of Muslim world's population unable to read or write: Study
- Adult literacy rate likely to plummet in post-pandemic era
- 1 in 5 Americans have low-literacy skills: These charts explain reading levels in the US
- Jharkhand: Backward Gumla block has female literacy rate higher than national average
- Blame 'devastated' primary education system for lowest literacy in Bihar: Expert
- Indian women's literacy rate increased by 68% since Independence: Report
- International Literacy Day 2023: Know About Remarkable Progress Made By Indiase
- Literacy rate in India | Bihar lowest at 61.8%, Kerala highest at 94%
- Odisha has highest dropout rate at secondary school level
- Female literacy rate in India up 68% since Independence: Report
- Community Libraries Help Literacy Rate In Jharkhand See An Upward Trend
- This Bihar Village Has 85% Literacy Rate And No Criminal Cases In 45 Years
- Pakistan’s literacy rate on a downward spiral
- Bihar has lowest literacy rate followed by Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan: Ministry of Education
- Two-thirds of world's illiterate adults are women, report finds
Energy
- Neighbourhood First: India Allows Three Neighbours Real-Time Access To Its Energy Market
- India ranked 67th on Energy Transition Index, Sweden on top: World Economic Forum
- Let decentralised renewable energy be the solution to the Northeast’s energy woes
- India’s solar open access installations up 92%, with 2.5 GW added in 2022: Report
- Improvising power trade in South Asia can ease renewable energy access in the region
- GEAPP provides US$35m to accelerate clean energy transition and access in five Asian countries
- India faces energy security challenge amid push for renewables: SBICaps Report
- India's renewable energy capacity at 122 GW in February
- The path to limiting global warming to 1.5 °C has narrowed, but clean energy growth is keeping it open
- IEA: More than a third of the world’s electricity will come from renewables in 2025
- Nagaland: WRI India launches energy access explorer in state for unserved and underserved communities
- Minigrids are evolving to be reliable sources of access to renewable energy in rural India
Food
- UN Report: Global hunger numbers rose to as many as 828 million in 2021
- Global nutrition report 2021 – India’s nutrition profile and how to meet global nutrition target
- WFP Chief calls for immediate support to maintain peace and stability in West and Central Africa
- India aims for $17 bn cut in food, fertiliser subsidies in 2023-24: Report
- Union Budget 2023 should provide measures to boost consumer demand and reduce costs for businesses
- Declining trend: Public spend on Indian agriculture has shrunk in a decade
- China’s efforts in maintaining global food security extremely important for a stable, balanced, equitable world: UN food systems envoy
- What’s on your table? How America’s diet has changed over the decades
- Indians are protein deficient, and it needs immediate attention
- Americans Are Eating More Ultra-Processed Foods
- Packaged food and fizzy drinks not behind India’s diabetes spike
- U.S. adult consumption of added sugars increased by more than 30% over three decades
- UPSC Essentials: Case Study of the week- Combating malnutrition the ‘Bharuch’ way
- Burden of being unfit in Karnataka - from newborns to adults
- ICT helping to abolish global hunger and malnutrition, achieve SDG 2
- Study Finds Local Foods are the Key to Nutrition in Ethiopia
Gender Equality
- Gender equality in Parliament: How do countries around the world fare?
- From women’s reservation to gender equality
- Gender equality is not an option, but an imperative’ – Women leaders gather at UN summit
- Women’s participation in India’s trade ecosystem
- Boys’ class: Editorial on the struggle to achieve gender equality in India
- Indian NGOs report progress on women's empowerment, gender equality to UNHRC
- UN members see need for ramped-up progress on gender equality
- UN Women and UNICEF promote gender equality and the empowerment of girls and women in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Global gender equality in 2023: Urgent efforts needed to reach 2030 goals
- Why Mexico and Nepal are ahead of India on gender parity in Parliament
- Women and girls being failed by ‘lacklustre commitment’ to gender equality, says UN
- Gender equality-related para in leaders’ declaration is in alignment with Saudi 2030 vision: Top delegate
- FIFA Women’s World Cup™ 2023 – Game changer for gender equality
- Less than 1 percent of women and girls live in a country with high women’s empowerment and high gender parity
- Women globally have to wait 131 years to achieve gender parity says WEF report — see where India ranks
Health
- Life expectancy at birth down to 80.1 years in 2021
- The U.S. Just Lost 26 Years’ Worth of Progress on Life Expectancy
- Singapore's total fertility rate drops to historic low of 1.05
- Healthy Life Expectancy and How It's Calculated
- American Life Expectancy Dropped By A Full Year In 1st Half Of 2020
- Portugal: Marginal rise in life expectancy at birth for men, decrease for women – INE
- China population: life expectancy to increase to over 80 by 2035, as high as 90 for women in affluent areas, study shows
- A child or youth died once every 4.4 seconds in 2021 – UN report
- Neonatal mortality rate in Kenya shows no significant change in 8 years: Survey
- Child, neonatal mortality rates see decline in Punjab
- Health of children aged less than 5 years improved in India, mortality rate reduced
- NCPCR pulls up Chhattisgarh, seeks chief secretary’s reply on 39,000 infant deaths since 2019
Housing
- World Bank says 64% of people who live in slums are in Asia
- 68% of the world population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, says UN
- Kenya: Habitat Assembly must renew its commitment to realize the right to adequate housing for all
- Slum population more than doubled in Karnataka in a decade
- Slum numbers show cities don’t help Dalits shed caste
- Over 3 billion people will live in overcrowded slums by 2050. Urban poverty a global challenge
- At 45,417, Kerala has lowest number of households in slums
- Slumming it out
- Urban slums data reinforces India’s consumption story
- 6.5 crore live in India slums, over 1 crore each in Maharashtra, Andhra
- Around 19% of urban population in J&K still lives in slums
- Why COVID-19 Outbreak In India's Slums Will Be Disastrous For The Urban Poor
Income and Work
- Unemployment rate falls to 7.7% in May on decline in labour participation: CMIE
- India’s unemployment rate in April rises to 8.11% from 7.8% in March
- Punjab: How Successive Govts Have Failed Unemployed Youth With Promise of Jobs
- Explained: The fall in unemployment rate in the 2020-21 labour survey, what it means
- Unemployment Rate Reduced To 4.2% In 2021: Labor Force Survey Report
- 135 million fewer multidimensional poor in 2021 compared to 2015: NITI Aayog index
- Recent Poverty Estimates Are Little More Than a Shot in the Dark
- Multidimensional Poverty Index: How the capital fared in the last five years
- India Close To Achieving SDG 2030 Target Of Reducing Poverty By Half: Niti Aayog
- A poverty, inequality, and growth puzzle
- Andhra Pradesh makes big strides in per capita income
- Per capita GDP for Bangladesh higher than India till 2022, says IMF
- World Bank estimates decline in Pakistan's GDP per capita income to USD 1,399
- African Countries With the Highest GDP per Capita
- India’s Economy 16.5 Years Behind China’s: Bernstein Research Report
- Did India’s Per Capita Income Really Double Since 2014-15? And Is It a Reliable Indicator of Growth?
- India's per capita income seen growing nearly 70% to USD 4,000 by FY30
Network
- Telangana second only to Kerala in Net subscriptions
- There will be more mobile phones than people by 2014: ITU
- India, China home to 39% of young Internet users: UN report
- Two thirds of the world’s school-age children have no internet access at home, new UNICEF-ITU report says
- Nigeria’s mobile subscribers hit 226.84 million
- India's 660 million population unconnected: Broadband Commission
- SA’s fixed internet speed and mobile speed have improved by 30% since last year - report
- Internet speed in India improves as 5G rollout picks pace, country jumps 4 spots in global ranking
- India improves on mobile download speed; fixed broadband drops: report
- India now has better internet speed, country jumps 4 spots in global ranking
- Saudi Arabia: Ratio of government expenditure to gross domestic product (GDP) from 2018 to 2028
- India's 'eye-watering' 1.7 pc spend on transport upgrade to set stage for $5 trillion economy
- Only 1 in 3 African women have access to the internet–compared with half of men. The cost to the continent’s economy could be in the billions
- Mobile broadband coverage gap highest in sub-Saharan Africa: GSMA report
Peace and Justice
- Corruption Perceptions Index 2022: Pakistan ranks 140 out of 180 countries; check full list
- Bulgaria goes up one notch in Corruption Perceptions Index - Transparency Intl
- Australia lifts ranking on global anti-corruption index after hitting record low
- Transparency International Ranks Kazakhstan 101st Among 180 Nations in Latest Index
- Indonesia drops 14 spots on worldwide corruption rankings
- openDemocracy’s corruption revelations see UK plunge in global ranking
- Corruption Perceptions Index 2022: A Wake-Up Call For Britain
- Singapore ranked 5th least corrupt country in 2022
- Japan has exceptionally low crime rates. But there's a dark side to its justice system.
- Mapping murder around the globe: Why fatal violence is concentrated in Latin America
- Mexico's 2016 murder tally exceeds those of many countries at war: study
- 100 or 200 Murders per Year? Something is Wrong with Hungary’s Homicide Statistics
- Crimes against SC/ST women, children up 15%, but conviction rate low, says House panel
- Crime Against Women Up 83%, Conviction Rate Hits Decadal Low
- Sexual offences in England and Wales overview: year ending March 2022
- Mumbai ranks second among 19 metros in crimes against women
- The global scale of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church
- Rape is endemic in South Africa. Why the ANC government keeps missing the mark