CLIMATE CRISIS
Kabir Arora writes: According to Modi, it is not climate which is changing, it is humans who have changed. And for the same reason, a meagre Rs. 100 Cr. have been set aside for climate change adaptation. Yes Mr. PM, humans have changed a lot, and have made climate far more variable than ever before….
Read More about Exposing the hypocrisy of Modi government on the environment
Development/Growth
Jay Mazoomdar writes: Narendra Modi does mean business. So his government has gone about eliminating the policy paralyses that many claimed ailed the previous regime. This meant dismantling roadblocks that hamper economic growth. But here is what also happens to be under fire: laws and rules that safeguard India’s environment, forests, wildlife, and tribal rights….
Read More about 11 environmental disasters Narendra Modi blessed in his first 100 daysDevelopment/Growth
Sagar Dhara (Note: An edited version of this article appeared in The Hindu, dated August 8, 2014, under the title ‘Building smart cities without energy’. Also read: Devinder Sharma’s article: How About Smart Villages, Mr Modi?) Recent pronouncements by the NDA ministers, when read together, provide insights into the NDA government’s ‘Acche din ayenge’ (good days ahead)…
Read More about Is the NDA government’s “Good days ahead” promise old wine in a new bottle?
ALTERNATIVES
This is the concept note for the first ever symposium on ‘de-growth’ in India, held in September 2014 in Delhi. Rajeswari S. Raina (NISTADS-CSIR) & Julien-Francois Gerber (TERI University) It has become common knowledge that GDP is a simplistic and even misleading measure for an economy’s health*. In fact, two-digit GDP growth is in many…
Read More about Growth, green growth or degrowth? New critical directions for India’s sustainabilityConflict/Dispossession
(Editor’s note: On Ecologise.in, we usually carry relatively abstract, ‘big picture’ articles or technical pieces on energy and the related topics of climate change, development and sustainability. In contrast, this hard hitting, extensively researched piece by Madhusree Mukherjee brings out the human cost involved in these issues. It’s essential reading if you want to understand the true…
Read More about Madhusree Mukerjee: How to Colonize Your Own CountryEcologise Events
One-day workshop: Charting a course towards a sustainable, equitable and peaceful society Venue: Cerana Foundation, Hyderabad Day: Sunday, 13 July, 2014 Time: 9 am to 6 pm About the workshop: We face one tilting point–environmental degradation and two tipping points–climate change and peak oil. Environmental degradation has already ruined the lives of many people in…
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Conflict/Dispossession
Papri Sri Raman reports: The new environment minister, Prakash Javadekar, met Defense Minister Jaitley on June 10 and later announced a policy that would enable India’s border states with Pakistan, China and Burma to clear defense projects falling within 100kms of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), without approaching the union government for environment clearances….
Read More about Environment Under Siege in New India
Conflict/Dispossession
Avay Shukla writes: The most disappointing and worrying aspect of the recent elections, for me, has been the almost complete absence of any debate or discussion on the environment. Some political parties, the BJP included, did make weak proforma noises about it in their manifestos but there was no mention of it in their campaigning….
Read More about Mr Modi and the environment – A green vision or a grey area?
Conflict/Dispossession
The lion, tiger, turtle, butterfly, orchid, mudskipper and one-horned rhino will need every helping hand to survive the development ambitions of a nation that believes that economic ambitions can be fulfilled at the cost of its wildernesses. We know that’s not possible and hope that you will move us away from the subcontinent’s biological-climate precipice….
Read More about Bittu Sahgal: Narendra Modi’s development plan: Will it hang India’s wildlife?
Conflict/Dispossession
Jay Mazoomdar writes: In its “classified” report titled ‘Impact of NGOs on Development’ sent to a host of government offices including the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), on June 3, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has named a long list of organizations and activists under its watch, from well-known environmental and anti-nuclear groups to little-known localized outfits….
Read More about IB’s NGO Report: Not a time for intelligence or dissent
ALTERNATIVES
Aditya Nigam, Kafila.org I saw men on television (trade union stars, Cabinet Ministers, left-wing think tank advisers) visibly hystericized by talking economics: eyes would glaze, shoulders hunch, lips tremble in a sensual paroxysm of ‘letting the market decide’, ‘making the hard decisions’, ‘levelling the playing field’, ‘reforming management practices’, improving productivity’…those who queried the wisdom…
Read More about May Day – Let us talk ‘Degrowth’Bookshelf
Book Review in The Hindu, 29 October 2013 Creating Space: Ecological Limits and Economic Development by Ramprasad Sengupta; Oxford University Press. Rs. 1250 Many sins are committed in the name of development. We are becoming aware that much of what were hailed as achievements over the past few centuries were actually “sordid boons.” Curiously, the…
Read More about Review: The real price of development
