Science
Down To Earth
Finger On The Pulse
Despite having immense nutritive and medicinal properties, the rice bean is a lesserknown pulse
3 min |
August 01, 2018
Down To Earth
Who Is Serving US GM Food
In a first-of-its-kind study in India, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) tested 65 food products available in the market to see if they contained genetically modified (GM) ingredients. To its horror, CSE found GM genes in 32 per cent of the products; almost 80 per cent of them imported. How did these products find their way into the country when food safety law prohibits the manufacture, import and sale of GM food? Who is to be blamed for this illegality?
10+ min |
August 01, 2018
Down To Earth
Why Is India's Technical Education In Totters?
The National Medical Commission Act of 2019 is facing massive protests. Doctors and activists across the country say it will corporatise medical education and lower the quality of healthcare providers. The debate around the Act lays bare the problems that rankle all technical education institutes in the country, which hardly ensure quality education to the aspiring youth
10+ min |
August 16, 2019
Down To Earth
The Curious Mind
The urge to look towards the sky stems from an intrinsic human curiosity emanating out of not just scientific but also existential queries
4 min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Arrival Of The Disruptors
A handful of billionaires are working hard to make space colonisation a reality. In the process they are reviving a sector that had stagnated for decades. Is this democratisation of space or a high-tech coup?
10+ min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Burden Of Relief
The Union government’s decision to exempt captive power plants from meeting renewable energy targets will upset India’s climate change mitigation plan
3 min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Uncharted Territory
The next step involves sending humans to space and responding to the changing dynamics of global space business
6 min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Not To Visit, But To Inhabit
The human civilisation is going to relocate for the first time, a part of it at least
4 min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Hostile Space
A six-month stay in space induces physiological changes to the human body. A trip to Mars will be thrice that duration. Can astronauts survive the ordeal?
5 min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Are We There Yet?
Habitation designs and technologies are almost ready to make life possible in outer space
5 min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Orbits Of Debris
Space waste threatens the existence of all satellites
2 min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Are We Aliens?
There is a theory that says life could have intergalactic origin
1 min |
May 01, 2019
Down To Earth
Vale Of Apatanis
Surrounded by wooded hills in Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh is the small Apatani valley, covering 26 square kilometres.VIKAS CHOUDHARY spends over a week with the Apatani tribe, capturing their lives and landscape in photographs. STUART BLACKBURN, author of Into the Hidden Valley, a novel on the Apatanis, explains the social fabric and beliefs of the tribe.
3 min |
October 16, 2016
Down To Earth
Go Forage
One person's weed can be another person's green
4 min |
October 16, 2016
Down To Earth
Undetected Window
India cannot eradicate tuberculosis unless it treats the infection in cattle.
4 min |
October 16, 2016
Down To Earth
Sun Burnt
In a panic to meet its solar energy target Karnataka changed its policy. The move has almost destroyed the initiative.
5 min |
October 16, 2016
Down To Earth
Revenge Of The Rich
Trump's election reflects the anger of the rich who did not get richer. This inequity is also at the core of the climate change challenge.
4 min |
December 01, 2016
Down To Earth
A Sniff To Save
It can detect a person buried under six metres of snow. PERVEZ CAMA, who travelled to the Swiss Alps, traces the history of St Bernard, a dog groomed to rescue travellers, and now part of popular culture.
4 min |
December 01, 2016
Down To Earth
Bonds To The Rescue?
Urban local bodies across India are floating bonds to raise money. This may render them unviable and make city living costly
4 min |
April 01, 2018
Down To Earth
Was The Met Office Napping?
Hailstorms have once again damaged crops in the drought-prone Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra as well as the credibility of the India Meteorological Department.
5 min |
April 01, 2017
Down To Earth
Era Begins Without Plan
NITI Aayog formally begins its business without a vision or an action plan.
4 min |
April 01, 2017
Down To Earth
Champaran Satyagraha Continues
A century ago, Mahatma Gandhi tested the idea of satyagraha for the first time to fight for indigo farmers in Champaran. While the crop is seeing a revival in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, Champaran in Bihar is in the throes of another peasant struggle.
10+ min |
April 01, 2017
Down To Earth
Measles Is Back
With outbreaks reported from across the world, measles' eradication by 2020 seems difficult
4 min |
May 16, 2017
Down To Earth
Bitter Medicine
It is time to treat pharma waste more rigorously. The waste contains active ingredients used in antibiotics and may be contributing to the spread of antimicrobial resistance
6 min |
May 16, 2017
Down To Earth
A Setback To Struggle For Health Rights
Amit Sengupta's optimism and persistence have inspired generations of public health activists in India and abroad.
2 min |
December 16, 2018
Down To Earth
Brain-Teaser
A device that uses electricity to pass through your brain is believed to cure a range of diseases. But the jury is still out on its safety.
3 min |
December 16, 2018
Down To Earth
The Lament Continues
The Alma-Ata Declaration failed to ensure health for all. Will Astana succeed?
3 min |
November 16, 2018
Down To Earth
Recycling Wheel
How Gujarat succeeded in co-processing plastic waste in cement kilns and promoted a circular economy
4 min |
October 1, 2018
Down To Earth
Install Windmills, But Not At Cost Of Birds
Buoyed up by wind power, Germany has been the frontrunner in the global energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources. Lately, wind power organisations are lobbying to increase their number even faster, particularly in the sensitive North Sea and the Baltic. This has posed a dilemma for conservationists who generally support renewable energy. The windmills, with massive blades, are known to kill birds and bats. KATHRIN AMMERMANN, who heads the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), tells JITENDRA how the government is trying to curb environmental impact of clean energy.
3 min |
October 1, 2018
Down To Earth
US Trading On Thin Ice
As Trump escalates the trade war with China, the key question is what constitutes theft of intellectual property
2 min |