Science
Down To Earth
Bitter pill
THE WEB SERIES PHARMA EXPOSES HARSH TRUTHS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY, WHERE PROFIT OFTEN BECOMES MORE IMPORTANT THAN HUMAN HEALTH
3 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
CHAOS IN-DEFINITION
The Aravallis are perhaps India's most litigated hill range. More than 4,000 court cases have failed to arrest their destruction. The latest dispute concerns a narrow legal definition of this geological antiquity, much of which has been obliterated by mining and urban sprawl. While the Supreme Court has stayed its own judgement accepting that definition, it must see the underlying reality and help reconcile development and national security with conservation.
10+ min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
BITS: INDIA
Indore has recorded 16 deaths and more than 1,600 hospitalisations between December 24 and January 6.
1 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
GUARANTEE EXPIRES
India's rural employment guarantee law is replaced with a centrally controlled, budget-capped scheme. Is this an attack on the right to work?
3 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
BLOOM OR BANE
Surge of vibrant pink water lilies in Kuttanad, Kerala, provides socio-economic benefits, but the plant's ecological impacts must be understood
4 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
INVISIBLE EMPLOYER
Field and academic evidence shows sharp falls in casual agricultural employment at places where groundwater access declines
3 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
Schemed for erasure
Does the VB-G RAMG Act address structural weaknesses long observed in MGNREGA's implementation?
10 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
School of change
An open school in Panagar, Madhya Pradesh, aims to protect children of tribal settlements from falling into the trap of addiction
2 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
PULSE OF RESILIENCE
As a climate-ready crop, cowpea shows potential for widespread use in India
3 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
BITS GLOBAL
Britain recorded its hottest and sunniest year ever in 2025, the country's meteorological office said on January 2.
1 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
Atomic juncture
A new comprehensive law opens up the nuclear sector to private players, while diluting disaster liability and safety provisions
6 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
MISMEASURE OF A MOUNTAIN
Earthquakes in the Aravallis provide a cautionary tale
7 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
Barrel diplomacy
What US control of Venezuelan oil means for India and the world
5 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
India's poverty count
OME FEBRUARY, India will roll out its first National Household Income Sample Survey. The exercise will measure household incomes and, in doing so, estimate levels of poverty, or prosperity, across the country. In effect, the survey will prepare a balance sheet for Indian households. It will seek extensive information on incomes and expenditures of a household—from input and output costs of a farmer to a taxpayer’s payout-to-loan burdens, an informal worker’s days of work and income, and a hotel employee's earnings from tips. Spanning community groups, the survey will calculate household “profits” and assess the value of assets like land and farms. It will also assign monetary value to welfare benefits received, arriving at a final estimate of household income. Such income surveys, though being adopted in India for the first time, are in use in countries across the world, like the US, China and Bangladesh.
2 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
VOICE OF REASON
Why Madhav Gadgil could never be ignored in the land of landslides
2 min |
January 16, 2026
Down To Earth
JINALI MODY - ENTREPRENEUR
In September 2025, UN Environment Programme announced Mumbai-based Jinali Mody, founder of material-science startup Banofi Leather, as a Young Champion of the Earth.
2 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
IT'S AN ENDLESS BATTLE
A decade spent tackling waste still feels vanishingly small
2 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
'NUMB, AND UNABLE TO ACT
As disasters grow more frequent, I find myself wondering how long I can continue living here, waiting for the next storm
2 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
SAJANA SAJEEVAN - CRICKETER
In April 2024, Sajana Sajeevan got her maiden call up to the national women's cricket team on the back of a 12-year domestic career that began in the paddy fields of Wayanad, Kerala.
4 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
NILA MADHAB PANDA - FILMMAKER
Few storytellers bring dramatic despair of ecological loss to the big screen like Nila Madhab Panda. The national-award winning filmmaker often makes nature his central character, be it in his 2017 film Kadvi Hawa or in the 2023 web series The Jengaburu Curse.
4 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
CHETAN SINGH SOLANKI: SCIENTIST | SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR
For the past five years, Chetan Singh Solanki has been on a singular journey.
2 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
ʻLIVING SLOWLY, RELUCTANTLY
The pleasures and burdens of attempting a sustainable life in a fast-moving world
2 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
KIRAN RAO
Filmmaker and producer Kiran Rao has mastered the art of mainstreaming social commentary, as seen in her early films like Dhobi Ghat and more recently in Laapataa Ladies and Humans in the Loop.
4 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
I SEE THE RISE OF DEFENDERS
When a species disappears from a land, the loss extends far beyond the species itself.
2 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
MANISH MEHROTRA - CHEF | RESTAURATEUR
Manish Mehrotra is globally recognised for his innovative approach to preserving India's culinary heritage.
4 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
MAMANG DAI - POET, NOVELIST
Often described as the poet-warrior of Arunachal Pradesh, Mamang Dai’s life and work are marked by quiet courage.
4 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
PARENTHOOD PAUSED
It seems unfair to bring an innocent life into a world sliding towards uninhabitable heat, drought and extreme weather.
2 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
TSEWANG CHUSKIT - CAPTAIN, INDIAN WOMEN'S ICE HOCKEY TEAM
Captain of the national women's ice hockey team since 2018, Tsewang Chuskit was only 10 years old when she first tried the sport in her village, Tangtse, in the Changthang region of Ladakh.
3 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
“THE UNEASE DISCONNECT
Waste, infrastructure and eco-anxiety on the edge of an expanding city
2 min |
January 01, 2026
Down To Earth
YOUNG, ANGRY, AND BETRAYED
AN OPINION SURVEY OF THE 21ST CENTURY'S FIRST GENERATION REVEALS GRIEF, FRUSTRATION AND RAGE OVER CLIMATE CHANGE
3 min |