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Rajnandgaon's location along a national highway has helped it to grow. It is also not cash-strapped. But its problem is the absence of good governance, writes Kalpana Sharma.

Tackling the globalization of waste requires new partnerships that span national boundaries and different sectors of society, says Ravi Agrawal.

Summiya Yasmeen reports on the contours, content and debate about environment education in India.

A vast network is needed to keep the Narmada promises, but funding for this vital element is mostly absent, says Himanshu Upadhyaya.

The rules notified in April to operationalise biodiversity legislation appear to exclude those opposed to treating public biological resources as private intellectual property. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Vermicomposting to convert household waste into manure is widely used worldwide, but using it to treat toxic waste is relatively recent and yet to gain acceptance. Surekha Sule reports on the work of Dr.Suneet Dabke.

Laws to protect the environment cannot follow a simple prohibition model; what is needed instead is an elaborate scheme of regulation and licensing, following rules designed to promote fairness and efficiency. Sairam Bhat outlines the differences between the two legal approaches to protecting the natural environment.

The Mundra multi-product SEZ project has been be exempted from holding a public hearing, according to the MoEF. But the official response to an RTI filing contends otherwise. Kanchi Kohli reports.

The Chair of the EAC should necessarily have an overarching environmental perspective, as s/he is supposed to ensure the environmental sustainability of projects that come to the committee. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

Iron ore from the proposed Rowghat mines in Chhattisgarh is crucial for the sustenance of the Bhilai steel plants. This, however, not only poses a grave threat to the forest ecology of the area, but is also itself vulnerable. Kanchi Kohli details the complexities.

The sweeping mandate in favour of the BJP under Narendra Modi was largely an outcome of the articulation of his idea of development, popularised as the “Gujarat Model.” But what could the defining features of such a model be?  Leo F Saldanha elaborates.

Himanshu Upadhyaya takes a close look at the Critically Polluted Areas mentioned in a recent CAG audit report on the environmental clearances and post clearance monitoring process of Ministry of Environment.

The ongoing Syrian and Mediterranean refugee crisis makes us look into our nation's as well as South Asian region's refugee policies in this edition. We also take a look at the widespread malnutrition amongst Indian children, why the proposed National Waterways Bill in its curent form is not a good idea, how Ladakh's cultural heritage and natural resources are deteriorating, the six-decades long suffering of Manipuri women under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Acts, a panel discussion on Nehru’s India: Essays on the Maker of a Nation a book by Nayantara Sahgal, a review of a newly released movie on the challenges faced by the Parsi community, and much more.

The ongoing Syrian and Mediterranean refugee crisis makes us look into our nation's as well as South Asian region's refugee policies in this edition. We also take a look at the widespread malnutrition amongst Indian children, why the proposed National Waterways Bill in its curent form is not a good idea, how Ladakh's cultural heritage and natural resources are deteriorating, the six-decades long suffering of Manipuri women under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Acts, a panel discussion on Nehru’s India: Essays on the Maker of a Nation a book by Nayantara Sahgal, a review of a newly released movie on the challenges faced by the Parsi community, and much more.

In this edition we celebrate the World Mental Health Day by bringing you stories of some mental illness surviors, we remember the Father of the Nation with a review of film Gour Hari Dastaan inspired by his ideals. We also take a look into why developing Amravati, the capital Andhra Pradhesh, in the land earmarked for it could be a disaster, the pollution caused by chemical factories in Vapi , the corruption that is derailing our Tribal Sub Plan and more.

In this edition we remember the hunger strike launched by Irom Sharmila fifteen years ago and which is still going strong. We also have a national award winner explaining why she will not give back her awards like the other awardees, and much more.

In this edition we look at the rising intolerance in country and how it can be alleviated as per the eminent historian Ms. Romila Thapar, how our nation is failing to nourish it's children, what is harming our coasts, natural flora and fauna, how we can use technology to make our society more equal and much more.

In this edition, we look into the odd-even traffic experiment going on in Delhi to combat its air pollution, how poor people lost eye sight in botched up cataract surgeries performed in Barwani, Madhya Pradesh, the skill deficit in the emerging work force of our country, an interview with the well-known Tamil feminist writer C S Lakshmi, and more.

A new mechanical device that makes areca nut harvesting less labour-intensive and hence affordable could solve one of the major problems faced by farmers of the crop. Shrikrishna D reports.

In an upper to middle income household a domestic help and her services are indispensable. Yet, she is not given the diginity, living wages and other benefits one gets in the organised sector. Pushpa Achanta talks to the activists working for the domestic workers' rights to find out more.

Laws addressing sexual violence may have changed in India, but with judicial response mired in scepticism and age-old attitudes towards rape survivors, there is little hope for justice. In conversation with Pamela Philipose, noted lawyer Vrinda Grover exposes the contradictions in the legal system.

A recent observation of the Supreme Court, while hearing a petition filed by a filmmaker challenging censorship of his documentary, has left advocates of human rights in the country anguished and puzzled. Shoma A Chatterji explains why.

Pushpa Achanta describes the unrelenting efforts of the KDMV in educating members of the Dalit and Adivasi communities about their legal entitlements and helping them wage battles for justice in cases involving caste atrocity and discrimination.

The current shape of government is too distributed to tackle the scale and complexity of the rural employment guarantee. A National-level autonomous body should be created solely for implementing the NREGA, and this agency should have the necessary authority, in addition to the responsibility, to manage the implementation, says Trilochan Sastry.

India is at a turning point and needs a holistic education system to meet the requirements and expectations of various existing and emerging sectors. Unless there is a revamp, our youngsters have a bleak future, says Ramesh Menon

It is tragic that the new Amendment to the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) (CLPR) Act, 2016, which has a seemingly progressive framework, has been largely diluted by chicanery, opines Kathyayini Chamaraj.

Kerala lacks a system to rehabilitate migrant child labourers. Navya P K finds out how rescued children are sent off to their home districts, and then forgotten.

"The Constitution is yours. The borders are yours. The sovereignty is yours. The flag is yours. What is ours? What is that is both tribal and Indian in the Constitution?" Shiv Visvanathan recalls an Independence-era conversation that marks the passage of the adivasis, unheard and unheeded, between two worlds.

At a time when we're drifting away from Gandhiji and the values he stood and fought for, a film like Gour Hari Dastaan comes as a reminder of what we've lost and forces us to reflect on why. Shoma Chatterji reviews this film about a Gandhian and his fight to prove that he was indeed a freedom fighter.

With tens of thousands still displaced over a week since the Tsunami disaster, some schools are yet to reopen and others are seeing low attendance. And as children wait anxiously in TN relief camps, more awe-inspiring stories are emerging. Krithika Ramalingam reports.

With Tamilnadu being a high-ranking state in the Educational Development Index in the country, one would expect children in government-run schools in metros like Chennai to be ahead of their counterparts elsewhere. Wrong. Krithika Ramalingam did a reality check.

Stone quarries, brick kilns, sand mining and silk weaving are stealing SC/ST children out of school in Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur districts of Tamilnadu. Krithika Ramalingam reports on the hard reality these children face.

The desire for quality education for all children is noble and surely one shared by all. But Tamilnadu's Samacheer Kalvi makes that more difficult, writes Parth Shah.

As food prices rise around the world, the political economy of food is being rewritten, with countries and companies moving to acquire large tracts of farmland around the world to secure their interests, notes Devinder Sharma.

An increasing number of farmers from across the country are flocking to the annual rice sharing festival in Tamil Nadu, where a whopping number of traditional rice seed varieties are exchanged and subsequently cultivated in different locales. Devinder Sharma reports from the 2014 event.

Nivedita Rao of PRS Legislative presents the current status of malnutrition and measures proposed by the recently released National Nutrition Strategy by NITI Aayog.

Environmental activists and locals in Kerala's Ernakulam region allege with evidence that the Pollution Control Board is entirely ineffective in preventing contamination of the Periyar river. M Suchitra reports.

The Coke saga in Kerala took a new twist towards the end of 2005 when the company expressed its interest to shift out of Plachimada to a nearby industrial estate where water consumption may be less contested. Meanwhile, the tussle between Coke and the Perumatty Panchayat awaits resolution at the Supreme Court, reports P N Venugopal.

Vetiver plants have long been known to provide economical protection against soil and water loss, and more recently they have also been found to be useful for water purification. But while other nations have rapidly embraced it, in India itself its adoption remains rare, finds Shree Padre.

The latest draft of the Water Policy is a clear improvement over the previous one, and appears to have taken on board many of the objections to earlier provisions. Still, much more should be done, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

The uncertainty of the nature and extent of climate change impact on the water sector calls for adaptive and flexible measures. Shripad Dharmadhikary quotes from a recent report of a Working Group within the IPCC to explain why.

New regulations from the environment ministry require coal-based thermal power plants to stick to legally binding limits for water consumption. Shripad Dharmadhikary examines the implications of these rules.

Concluding the six-part series on civil society and governance, Jayaprakash Narayan lays down the framework for addressing India's governance crisis.

What does it take to make the bureaucracy responsive to the needs and expectations of citizens? A recent workshop in New Delhi on Developing Institutions for Public Accountability in Urban Services explored this question. Darryl D'Monte recounts some key observations made at the workshop.

Tamilnadu's foray into e-governance has not yet lived upto potential because policy makers may be implementing top-driven projects with little public participation. Still, the state does have its own examples of how things could work. Krithika Ramalingam reports.

In our system of criminal justice, the state takes up the responsibility to prosecute offenders on behalf of victims. Although public prosecutors are theoretically independent, in practice they face a number of improper influences. Bikram Jeet Batra surveys the prosecution system in India, and finds it in need of much change.

An early warning by China on impending floods in the Sutlej river helped avert major loss to human lives in June. Yet, India's disaster preparedness plans have been found wanting. India still does not have reliable information from China about glacial lakes that are prone to flooding the Himalayan rivers, writes Sudhirendar Sharma.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's proposal for a North East Water Resources Authority to steer development along the Brahmaputra river basin in an integrated manner is both grand and glamorous. But how will the proposed Authority succeed where the Brahmaputra Board failed? This is still unclear, says Videh Upadhyay.

Police officers are uniform in the belief that political interference in their work is uniquitous. They also see themselves as crime fighters first and foremost, and hence view all other work as a distraction. But in fact, says Arvind Verma, there is little truth to either of these beliefs.

Are ancient structures the relics of a past that we no longer want to remember? As the 139-year-old Crawford Market in Mumbai faces the demolition squad, Darryl D'Monte looks at the pitfalls of a 'development' model that could have cities across the world sporting the same skyline.