Monika Mondal

The Indian government wants to supply solar PV to its domestic market and the world. But dependence on its geopolitical rival for components and technology makes it a challenging task.

Up until a few years ago, Sanjeet Pahan didn’t consider visiting a doctor for his skin. But by 2020, small pink lesions had started appearing on his feet. Now, the spots, which resemble red grapes in some places and small berries in others, have spread, reaching all the way up to his face.

Janki Devi, a 26-year-old woman who survives on the daily wages earned by her husband, lives in a small house by the Assi River, a tributary of the River Ganga in the holy city of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The house has the unmistakable stench of sewage. Outside, the Assi flows by in its darkest possible shade.
Devi’s toilet is a makeshift arrangement on the uplifted bank of the Assi. Household sewage goes directly into the river. “I just throw the garbage and everything in the river. What oth...

Interest in India as an economic partner is very high in the West. It is accepted that women's rights and democracy are being violated there. Since the beginning of May, women have been paraded naked and raped, children have been shot and houses and churches have been burned down in the north-east Indian state of Manipur. Members of two ethnic minorities have attacked each other with state-funded weapons, but India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, meanwhile, has preferred to pay state visits to the US , Egypt, Australia and other countries.

Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu—On the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent, Pamban island is straddled by India and Sri Lanka. On the west, a single railway line and an asphalt bridge run parallel to the turquoise water, connecting the island with mainland India. And on the east, a chain of natural limestone ridges, often known as Adam’s bridge or Rama Setu, reaches out to Sri Lanka.

CHENNAI, INDIA—Mutha’s sari fills up like a pink water balloon as she drags herself against the current of the sea. Standing in the shallow waters near the coast, she peers below for a few moments, through her thick plastic goggles, and takes a dip, emerging with a clump of greenish seaweed, called marikolunthu pasi in Tamil.

As the sun began to set on Delhi, 45-year-old Rani hiked up her salwar pants, squatted next to the iron pan just outside her home, and lit a match. The plastic grocery bags were the first items to catch fire. Soon the cow-dung cakes ignited, their chocolate-brown edges glowing in the dusk. Rani coughed as smoke rose from the pan.

The commercial agricultural sector has been found to be responsible for the extinction of over 86% of species; a worldwide loss of all pollinators threatens to reduce annual agricultural output by about $217 billion, according to estimates

Over a decade before the COVID-19 virus was detected, an organization began an ambitious project to track the various strains of the influenza virus across the world. The Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, or GISAID, has, over the years, managed to create a bank of genetic information on lethal viruses.

Rani, a domestic worker in New Delhi, travels 10-15 kilometers every day from her cramped urban slum in Goyla Dairy, Najafgarh, to high rise buildings in Dwarka. Sometimes she hops on a shared rickshaw, or hangs by the door of an overloaded minibus. Traveling is just one of the difficult parts of her day when she is forced to endure the heat.

Last week, parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity concluded their meeting of the open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
Before the beginning of the discussions on June 21, world leaders had expected the meeting of the GBF would birth better consensus on the framework’s underlying document.

Extreme weather ruined this year’s harvest, but that is just one of their challenges
Some farmers are hoping for government compensation, and argue for greater state support. In its absence, they say, they would rather get out of growing mangoes.

A view of the plenary session of the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 GBF, March 2022. Photo: Convention on Biological Diversity. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s Open-Ended Working Group is meeting in Nairobi this week to discuss the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

Studies on central Gangetic alluvial plains in Lucknow reveal that the city’s aquifers are unable to sustain extraction levels and may be disappearing permanently and rapidly.

The exploitation of groundwater resources and unsustainable land use were highlighted as major causes for countless cases of sinking land, or land subsidence.

When the coronavirus lockdown started more than two years ago, Sripati Tudu kept himself busy by working solely on one of his dream projects: translating the world’s longest constitution into his tribal language, Santali.