Supreme Court has asked the states to evict illegal occupants of village commons. This a report by Down to Earth on the apex court judgement which said that transfer of village community land for private & commercial use is illegal and asked all state governments to prepare schemes for eviction of illegal occupants of village community land & restore them back for the purpose it was originally meant for.
Batteries & meters dictate how we commute, communicate, adopt green technologies and measure. This report in DTE charts evolution of these two technologies and analyses what future holds for them.
Pre-budget discussions on misuse of subsidised diesel in cars has hit a crescendo. Public angst has already brought this to a boil. Political ire is also sharper this year, with Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh condemning the use of subsidised diesel in luxury SUVs as “criminal”.
The government has a plan to reach welfare to the poor without wasting money. It wants to put hard cash in their hands instead of spending on welfare programmes. Down To Earth finds out how cash transfer works and how ready is India for the shift in the delivery of welfare schemes.
The Union government is reviewing its landmark initiative, the Forest Rights Act, four years after enacting it and two high-level groups submitted their assessment in the first week of January. But theenvironment ministry is in no mood to accept Forest Rights Act review finds out Down To Earth.
A special report on the five-day biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons that ended on January 15 at Hyderabad. As the commons come under increasing assault, academics, practitioners and policymakers came together to devise ways to protect shared resources.
Sponge iron industry is set to drive future steel production of India. But poorly regulated factories are highly polluting. Protests are frequent, often turning violent. Down To Earth reports on the status of the sponge iron industry and its challenges.
