Science
Down To Earth
Arrival of blue king
How do peaceful people get forced into battles they do not want to fight? In Oonga, a book adaptation of a 2013 film of the same name, writer-director DEVASHISH MAKHIJA undertakes a journey with a little Dongria Kondh boy, who is desperate to see a performance of the Ramayan, to expose the clash between adivasis and mining companies that threaten to destroy their villages, forests and hills. Excerpts
5 min |
April 16, 2021
Down To Earth
Carbon Cost Of Internet On The Rise
The environmental impact of digital platforms is becoming glaring by the day.
1 min |
April 01, 2021
Down To Earth
GREEN IS THE NEW ORANGE
THERE IS MORE TO CARROTS THAN THEIR COLOURFUL ROOTS
4 min |
April 01, 2021
Down To Earth
‘Artists world over should raise alarm'
EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ARE NOT JUST DRYING THE EARTH BUT ALSO THE SPIRIT OF HUMANKIND. THIS IS THE MESSAGE DANCER, WRITER AND ACTIVIST MALLIKA SARABHAI AND DIRECTOR YADAVAN CHANDRAN AIM TO DELIVER THROUGH THEIR RECENT DANCE VIDEO, ARID. THE DANCE COMPRISES THREE ACTS ON THE INTENSITY OF THE WATER CRISIS. THEY SPEAK ON THE ROLE OF ART IN TACKLING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN AN INTERVIEW WITH DAKSHIANI PALICHA. EXCERPTS:
2 min |
April 01, 2021
Down To Earth
Rays of light and hope
An energy start-up aims to provide a sustainable power solution to rural consumers
2 min |
April 01, 2021
Down To Earth
GOURMET GUR
Destruction of date palm trees during cyclone Amphan and warming weather have resulted in a huge decline in production of West Bengal’s trademark nolen gur
3 min |
April 01, 2021
Down To Earth
A GOOD FIRST DRAFT
NITI AAYOG’S DRAFT NATIONAL MIGRANT POLICY TAKES A RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH AND DISCUSSES THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLECTIVE ACTION AND UNIONS TO HELP MIGRANTS BARGAIN FOR BETTER CONDITIONS. BUT KEY GAPS REMAIN
6 min |
April 01, 2021
Down To Earth
NEW TARGETS
COVID-19 cases are being reported in large numbers from districts that had so far been mildly hit by the pandemic
4 min |
March 16, 2021
Down To Earth
THE CHASE AND THE CHANGE
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has shown what it can achieve by putting water conservation at its core
10+ min |
March 16, 2021
Down To Earth
UNTOLD RISKS
India needs a full-time organisation to tackle a host of biological threats
3 min |
March 16, 2021
Down To Earth
CATTLE WISE
INDIA NEEDS TO LOOK BEYOND GAUSHALAS IF IT WANTS TO CHECK THE NUMBER OF STRAY CATTLE
5 min |
March 16, 2021
Down To Earth
Variants V Vaccine
How the entry of the new variants impacts the global efforts to curb the pandemic
4 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
THEY HAD US FOOLED
“We sold our land to the Rishiganga hydropower plant because we needed money. But it turns out that we paid for the dam with my sister’s life. The Chamoli flash flood just wiped out everything that came in its way”
10+ min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
SOME ZEST AND A PUNCH
INDIA IS SAID TO BE THE CENTRE OF ORIGIN FOR CITRUS FRUITS LIKE GALGAL, BUT DISASTERS SUCH AS THE RECENT FLASH FLOODS IN CHAMOLI THREATEN THEIR NATURAL HABITAT
4 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
IT'S NOT ALL DOWNHILL
Subsidies alone will not give enough push to electric vehicles in India. Policymakers and manufacturers need to work in tandem with consumers to understand their needs and identify demands
3 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
WRITING ON THE WALL
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY HAS BECOME AN INSEPARABLE AND CRUCIAL ELEMENT OF EVERY LARGE BUSINESS. IT IS NOW TIME TO PLUG THE GAPS
3 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
Royal snub to green recovery
JUST 12 per cent of the covid-19 economic recovery packages announced by the world's 30 major economies will support climate objectives, says the latest edition of Greenness of Stimulus Index released on February 12.
1 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
Binaries of a loss
India now has adequate facilities to recycle its e-waste, but poor monitoring and informal dismantlers resulted in collection of just 10 per cent of the country’s electronic refuse in 2018-19
3 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
“It will open up a new area of Mars exploration”
On February 18, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars. The space agency’s first astrobiology mission aims to look for signs of ancient microbial life and collect samples of rock and soil to be brought to Earth in a future mission. On board the rover is Ingenuity—a helicopter whose main purpose is to attempt a flight in an atmosphere only 1 per cent as dense as Earth’s. The date of the flight is not scheduled, but it is likely to be in May 2021. DAKSHIANI PALICHA speaks to Ingenuity’s chief engineer J (BOB) BALARAM on the significance of the flight attempt and the advantages of a flying probe in the study of the planet
4 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
Orchard man of Jalaun
Mataprasad Tiwari's mission to plant trees persists even 30 years after its inception
2 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
Almost 20
Almost 20 per cent of India’s total land area has toxic levels of arsenic in its groundwater says a IIT-Kharagpur study.
1 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
Unfair fields of cotton
Asymmetric World Trade Organization rules that allow the US to inflate its cotton subsidies, much to the peril of farmers in India and elsewhere, must be reformed
5 min |
February 16, 2021
Down To Earth
SHORT SHRIFT TO RURAL ECONOMY
The Union Budget 2021-22 prioritises spending, but fails to provide agriculture and the rural sector the boost needed to revive growth
5 min |
February 16, 2021
Down To Earth
The science behind the art
Cooking is an art, most would say. However, at its root, cooking is a form of chemical engineering, writes Krish Ashok in his recent book, Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking. Understanding the science behind food preparation can arm the chef with techniques to augment flavours. Here’s a crash course on the physics and chemistry of food.
4 min |
February 16, 2021
Down To Earth
IT'S TAKEN ROOTS
It is likely that COVID-19 would soon become endemic in several countries, including India
4 min |
February 16, 2021
Down To Earth
AN AGRARIAN BIOPSY
The widespread protests by farmers across India have forced us to probe the fundamentals of the farm economy
10+ min |
February 16, 2021
Down To Earth
Arctic On Thin Ice
NO PLACE felt the heat in 2020 like the Arctic and its surrounding seas. Its ice cover melted to its second-lowest annual minimum extent of 3.74 million km2 in summer, while the freeze-up in autumn saw a sluggish start.
2 min |
February 01, 2021
Down To Earth
India's E-Waste Generation Up By 27%
In just one year, India's e-waste generation jumped 27 per cent, says a recent report by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). In 2019-20, the country generated 1,014,961 tonnes of e-waste, as against the 771,215 tonnes generated in 2018-19.
1 min |
February 01, 2021
Down To Earth
COPY AND EVOLVE
BUILDING UPON THE IDEAS OF PREVIOUS GENERATIONS MADE CIVILISATION AND THE ECONOMY POSSIBLE, WRITES TIM HARFORD
5 min |
February 01, 2021
Down To Earth
WATER WISE
FARMERS IN A TAMIL NADU VILLAGE WERE ABLE TO MITIGATE CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS BY BUDGETING WATER AND DIVERSIFYING CROPS
3 min |