Page 9:We all eat GM food, uninformed and illegally

In - Depth

Every existence has its excuse, it is said. Every year taxonomists in India venture into uncharted landscapes and scan every nook and corner to find out many such existences and unveil the excuses. In the past year they found 523 species of animals and plants. Down To Earth introduces a few of the country's newest citizens to you, each of them equally contributing to the megadiversity of India

Science & Technology

Indian Science Congress: assessing progress and challenges

Economy

Why this abandoned village is a threat to Uttarakhand

Climate Change

International Mountain Day: Highland people to face vagaries of weather, food insecurity

Released on the occasion of Mountain Day, two reports highlight climate threats to high altitude areas

Governance

CAG assesses performance of ministries

The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India had submitted 16 performance reports on various sectors to the Finance Ministry and they were tabled in the Parliament

Governance

2015: The year that was

Taking stock of developments of the year

Water

Why better sewage management in Chennai will help fight floods

Down To Earth Editor Sunita Narain explains how the city's three rivers and 320 tanks and lakes that worked as flood barriers are used mostly for dumping sewage

Agriculture

Labour exit

Labour shortage in agriculture forces Indian farmers to innovate to stay afloat

Forests

Where dry gardens wilt

India is one of the 17 megadiverse countries, with over 11 per cent of the world's plant species. Herbaria across the country store millions of rich biological samples, helping scientists to connect with the past and better understand evolution, extinction, climate change and even introduction of invasive species. But due to inadequate funds and little government support, these repositories …

Governance

A look at the changing scenario of Bihar politics

Of late, women have become the it factor in elections. Caste also plays a dominant role in voter polarisation

Climate Change

The US is open to setting up more fossil fuel power plants within its national boundaries and encouraging industry to set up inefficient gas-based plants
Credit: Tony Webster/Flickr

Plan of inaction

How the US president sold an unambitious plan to clean the power sector as historical

Air

The season of death

Come winter, air pollution will breach record levels across cities, causing illnesses and several avoidable deaths. Where do our faults lie and what can we can do to correct them?

Air

Following the fraud,
sales of Volkswagen
diesel vehicles have
taken a hit worldwide
and stopped in the US

Does Volkswagen fraud signal death of diesel?

Making diesel vehicles clean, powerful and fuel-efficient is no easy task, and the Volkswagen cheating case has exposed this. This should act as a wake-up call for India, which is dieselising rapidly but lags behind developed countries by decades in enforcing stringent emission standards and monitoring strategies

Food

Sending out a strong message to the Zero Hunger Generation

The main challenge now is to engage young people to sustainably eradicate hunger and poverty globally by 2030

Agriculture

'Social protection: a safety net for agricultural households'

In the run up to World Food Day on October 16, a Food and Agriculture Organization report focuses on the role of social protection in breaking the cycle of rural poverty