The ongoing deliberations around the newly introduced farm laws have redrawn the nation’s focus on farmer-centric issues. Following suit, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of pro-agrarian measures in the Union Budget, including an agri-credit enhancement to the tune of INR 16.5 lakh crore — highest till date. This move is expected to spur better inputs and cutting-edge technology, making farming less labour-intensive.

In India, around three lakh children die of water-borne diseases every year, with diarrhoea alone causing more than 50 per cent of the deaths. Despite the primary sources of water in the country—groundwater and surface water—being highly contaminated, only 32 per cent of the Indian households get water from a treated source. The groundwater in most of the districts of 24 Indian states has high concentrations of metals and heavy metals. Water sources across the country are also contaminated with high levels of pathogenic organisms.

Farmers in India receive electricity either free of charge or at extremely low rates for operating irrigation pump (IP) sets. The distribution utilities are compensated for the free (or nearly free) supply through subsidies by state governments. To claim higher subsidy amounts, utilities often show inflated figures of agricultural consumption. The higher consumption (by IP sets) estimates also help utilities portray lower loss in their network.

This work presents the effects of fireworks display during Diwali on the short-term elevation of atmospheric aerosols and associated particle deposition in human respiratory tract at Dehradun, located in the foothills of the Himalayas. During Diwali in the years 2017 and 2018, the real-time particle number count (PNC) and particulate matter (PM) with the aerodynamic diameter of 0.01 to 35 μm were measured using an aerosol spectrometer.

Leveraging the COVID-19 India-wide lockdown situation, the present study attempts to quantify the reduction in the ambient fine particulate matter concentrations during the lockdown (compared with that of the pre-lockdown period), owing to the highly reduced specific anthropogenic activities and thereby pollutant emissions. The study was conducted over Bengaluru (India), using PM2.5 (mass concentration of particulate matter having size less than or equal to 2.5 µm) and Black Carbon mass concentration (BC) data.

The Indian power sector is going through a major transformation owing to extensive generation from sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind and the introduction of newer market mechanisms such as real-time market, which provide the opportunity to trade power within half-hour windows. However, there are challenges that hinder the evolution of the sector into a sustainable model. These include the poor financial health of electricity distribution companies (DISCOMs), slow momentum in attaining renewable energy targets, and the desynchronized functioning of various stakeholders.