ODISHA is set to become a powerhouse of the country. Over the past seven years, the state has signed several memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with public and private firms to produce 50,000 MW thermal power. The state is proud of this achievement, but experts are concerned over an environmental threat—fly ash, the notorious waste product of coal-fired plants, known to ruin agricultural land.
Odisha may witness production of about 100 million tonnes fly ash annually if all the thermal power projects become operational.

Book: The politics of climate change and the global crisis: mortgaging our future, by Praful Bidwai, Orient Blackswan, Rs 750.

The first-ever lab study of junk foods in India by Centre for Science and Environment published in Down To Earth exposes dubious claims by fast food giants.

Solar mission mandate to promote domestic crystalline silicon technology fails to achieve desired result. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is planning to create a fund to help entrepreneurs who are setting up domestically engineered solar power plants in the country. Many project developers feel the pinch while buying solar equipment from domestic manufacturers because cheaper Chinese and US solar panels are available in the market.

It is one year since the great eastern Japan earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster ravaged Japan. How is the country coping? Shriya Mohan travels to Tokyo and Fukushima to find out. My first impression of Japan, after landing at the Haneda international airport in the wee hours of the morning, was the sight of hundreds of people wearing white masks that stretched from ear to ear, walking briskly past me. It triggered a question: “radiation?”.

Okhla residents accuse BJP and Congress of trying to poison people by promoting waste incineration to generate electricity. The plant is being put through trial runs. Even as candidates contesting municipal seats in the national capital make their rounds of residential colonies to seek votes, citizens and waste-pickers' associations are angered by the election manifesto of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). One of the promises it makes is electricity from waste by setting up incineration plants in various parts of the city.

The companies missed the last deadline of March 9 to commission solar power plants under national solar mission. The bank guarantees of three companies, commissioned to install solar power plants under the national solar mission have been encashed. The companies failed to commission the power plants on time. The last date of commissioning was March 9.

Fukushima is the latest spur for the campaign against the ambitious Kudankulum project in Tamil Nadu. Read this report on the sociology and politics of the 25-year old struggle and the status of nuclear eanergy a year after Fukushima.

Climate change is happening now and is not some distant future event: World Meteorological Organization general secretary. The rate of climate change accelerated in the period 2001-2010—the warmest decade ever recorded worldwide, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its preliminary findings for its report titled Decadal Global Climate Summary. Dramatic and continuing sea ice decline in the Arctic was one of the most prominent features of the changing state of the climate during the decade.

A maroon car, powered by fuel obtained from photosynthetic microorganisms, was flagged off for a test run by Union minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Vilasrao Deshmukh in New Delhi on March 30. The event brings alternative fuels from microorganisms closer to reality. With fossil fuels set to get exhausted in the next few hundred years and the spectre of global warming looming over the planet, the world is increasingly looking at alternative energy options.