As Singapore, New York and Melbourne have shown, cities can mitigate the impact of heatwaves if they have the will to create green infrastructure, explain Amit Kapoor & Bibek Debroy.
As global warming makes the weather more unpredictable, the water economy of urban India will have to be planned without depending on reservoirs getting routinely filled up by rain every year.
The Yamuna surged to a record 208.48 metres at 8 am, the Central Water Commission said on Thursday, adding that it is likely to rise to 208.75 metres by 4 pm.
The threshold for a heat wave is met when the maximum temperature of a weather station reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius in the plains, 37 degrees in coastal areas, and 30 degrees in hilly regions, and the departure from normal is at least 4.5 notches.
More than 40 new product launches are expected at the upcoming Auto Expo which will be held under the umbrella of Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025 from January 17-22, a government official said on Tuesday. With visas continuing to be an issue, large scale participation of Chinese companies are unlikely although some of them are participating at the expo, Joint Secretary at Ministry of Commerce and Industry Vimal Anand said at the sidelines of curtain raiser of 'Bharat Battery Show' which will also be a part of the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025.
As we brace for unprecedented rates of urbanisation, it is crucial to ensure that illegal constructions and unauthorised land use are curbed, asserts Amit Kapoor.
Water is going to be a central part of the government's 2024 election campaign. And Gajendra Singh Shekhawat's work will be crucial for it.
Kerala has had 202 fatalities in 2024 so far. In July alone, there were 202,122 episodes of fever, 2,250 cases of dengue, 1,850 cases of mumps and several other illnesses. 10,000 cases of dengue have been reported from Karnataka. 1,000 swine flu cases have been documented in Rajasthan.
The Delhi government has announced that vehicles older than 15 years will be denied fuel at petrol pumps starting April 1.
The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has undergone a significant transformation, evolving from hit-and-run attacks to carrying out sophisticated operations with tactical precision. The group's tactics and targets have become increasingly audacious, targeting security forces, Chinese nationals, and innocent civilians. Experts attribute the BLA's evolution to various factors, including the leadership of Bashir Zeb, the group's growing intelligence network, and its exploitation of the grievances of the Baloch people. The BLA's actions are a cause for concern, as the group's sophisticated attacks pose a major challenge to security forces.
Heatwave conditions have been prevailing in Odisha since April 15 and the Gangetic West Bengal since April 17, according to the MeT department.
Urban Company, the home services firm, announced a 12-point programme on Thursday to improve partner earnings and livelihood for all partners on its platform in India. The announcement comes after most women partners on the platform staged a protest last Friday, demanding better layouts and safer working conditions. Among the provisions in the 12-point programme are reduction of highest commissions in the beauty category, in which most of Urban Company's female partners work.
Of the 538 projects examined, 294 suffered from cost overruns, 303 from time overruns, and 166 projects suffered both time as well as cost overruns.
Given the high priority accorded to the manufacturing sector, several policy initiatives around the theme of Atmanirbhar Bharat have been set in motion to address its competitiveness and growth. Some notable examples include the PLI scheme and the employment-linked incentive scheme announced in the recent Union Budget. The Budget also announced the setting up of 12 industrial parks under the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme (NICDP).
It said 33,510 slums were estimated to be in the urban areas of the country of which 41 per cent were notified.
'Not paying workers enough will end up being self-destructive or harmful for the corporate sector itself.'
Water shortage is likely to lead to political tensions and instability in the future, warns Simon George, President, Cargill India.
India is facing a massive urban crisis, whose solution is nowhere in sight.
To ensure immediate cooling of the body, the hospital has set up a first-of-its-kind heatstroke unit.
The focus of the average Indian on water and air quality, and emerging urban concern with noise pollution have quite understandably relegated concerns about climate change to the background.
At least five people were killed in separate rain-related incidents on Tuesday in Bengaluru, which has been reeling under incessant rains for the past three days causing widespread flooding in several residential areas and turning roads into virtual rivers.
Modi pitched for revamping urban governance while linking it to the 'Digital India' mission and 'Swachh Bharat' campaign.
The heat wave is likely to impact parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal, the Met office said.
The much-delayed decadal census exercise and the work to update the National Population Register (NPR) are likely to begin early 2025 and the data will be declared by 2026, thus changing future census cycles completely, official sources said.
Amid the heavy downpour in Bengaluru, residents of many flood-affected areas have taken to social media to pour out their woes ranging from waterlogging to complaining about "crumbling" infrastructure.
India has been ranked at a lowly 120 among the 122 countries where there is poor quality of drinking water, says a development report of the United Nations.
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Some experts believe that building new cities may not be the answer to India's swelling urban population.
Chief ministers of three Congress-ruled states -- Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana's Revanth Reddy -- have announced they will not attend the NITI Aayog meeting over alleged bias against their states in the Union Budget.
Elections are not won or lost by expounding on such macro-economic matters. For the aam admi, what matters in manifestos are promises that will improve their quality of life, notes Vinayak Chatterjee.
Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has the task of bringing clean tap water to all households by 2024.
Atishi will have a brief tenure in office as assembly elections in the national capital are due in February.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday said it has approved a loan of $125 million (around Rs 938 crore) for water supply and sanitation projects in Uttarakhand. The funds will be utilised to improve access to quality water supply and sanitation services in the Himalayan state, ADB said in a release. Under this project, 136 kilometres of water pipe system will be constructed to replace defective water networks in South Dehradun. This will ensure reliable and continuous water supply, benefitting an estimated 40,000 people, including 4,000 urban poor and vulnerable groups.
All eyes are now on the Sena factions, led by CM Shinde, backed by the BJP, and his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray, and their performance in the coastal belt in the November 20 polls.
Lakhs of voters will have to bear the searing heat when they step out to exercise their franchise in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday.
'The quality of a leader should be such that even if the leader is not there, the institution carries on.'
The first phase of polling, held on September 18, saw an estimated 61.38 per cent voter turnout, while the final phase is set to take place on October 1 in the crucial elections being held after 10 years.
Seven out of eight women street vendors reported experiencing high blood pressure, while women in the middle age group raised concerns about delays in their menstrual cycles due to the extreme heat.
For India to view the new Sri Lankan leadership only through the prism of the past or through their narrow view on China, is fraught with possibilities that should be avoided, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Each bottle of pickle that leaves FarmDidi, headed to a consumer, has a little kahani behind it -- it's linked to the tale of a life, the life of a simple, striving village woman who created it, and that's what gives Manjari Sharma satisfaction and happiness.
Kerala, Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are facing a severe drought this year, affecting livelihoods as well as lives.
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