What is the best thing about the Budget?I am glad the government is coming down hard on black money and the illegal accumulation of money. It will be good to see if they can really track all this money and use it for the benefit of the country.And ...

The Labor Department’s survey taken in April shows record job losses for the U.S. WSJ explains the context behind the historic numbers Photo: Justin Lane/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Puerto Rico’s power authority sent a jolt through a corner of the U.S. stock market Wednesday as shares in financial stocks exposed to the commonwealth soared after the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority agreed to a debt-restructuring plan with a group of bondholders.

The increased use of personal and commercial drones is raising questions about where they should be permitted to fly, and who should make that decision. The FAA estimates drone sales will reach 7 million by 2020. Photo: John Weber for The Wall Street Journal

Amid an increase in confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the U.S., more companies, religious institutions and schools are asking people to stay at home if they may have come into contact with the virus. WSJ follows the case of one man under voluntary self-quarantine. Photo: Sam Dziekan

The destinies of the people of Kolavipalam village in North Kerala and the endangered Olive Ridley turtles are bound together. M P Basheer explores.

Kishore Wankhade peers into a 2002 inquiry report into the disappearance and fast-track clearance of hazardous wastes from India's Ports.

Tackling the globalization of waste requires new partnerships that span national boundaries and different sectors of society, says Ravi Agrawal.

Videh Upadhyay reviews the predicament of the Interlinking Rivers project.

The National Environmental Appellate Authority came into being in 1997 for citizens concerned with environmental impact to challenge central government clearances. But the Law Commission of India pointed out not long ago that this forum of final appeals "had very little work". Kanchi Kohli discovers more.

"Why are the Expert Committees of Ministry of Environment and Forests dominated by ex-bureaucrats, politicians and engineers?" asked over 60 non-profit organizations earlier this month in an open letter. Kanchi Kohli was one of the drafters of the letter to Ministry that has asked for a reconstitution of the flawed committees.

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. is seeking environmental clearance for a proposed Rs 2000 crore expansion project in Chhatisgarh. A public hearing this January witnessed plenty of local opposition. The 17 July visit of a Ministry of Environment expert committee has not inspired faith in due process, writes Kanchi Kohli.

Even as the IPCC's latest assessment speaks of the need for technocratic solutions to the challenge of global warming, the United Nations Security Council has signalled that this will be an issue of importance to questions of political stability and peace too. Gopal Krishna reports.

The Delhi High Court has fined an environment regulator, and ordered the Ministry of Environment and Forests to act within weeks on directives that it has ignored for over three years. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Impact assessment studies to understand the consequences of large dam projects have been de-linked from the actual implementation of the projects, thus diluting their value, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

Many of the institutions or departments who have sent in applications for IPR consideration to the NBA are also represented on the committee which evaluates the applications, reports Kanchi Kohli.

The spirit of a public hearing must be respected, says a recent verdict from the Delhi High Court, refusing to accept the literal interpretations of the rules which the environment appellate authority used. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Extracting enough gold to forge a wedding band leaves behind at least 20-30 tons of waste and environmental devastation. Mahazareen Dastur writes about the costs of gold mining in the first of a two-part series.

The UNDP is correct to observe that despite the different histories of developed and developing countries, we cannot ignore the fact that it is still one planet. Darryl D'Monte reports.

Evidence of violation of environment regulation by the Adani group in their Mundra Port and SEZ Ltd and the Waterfront Development Project have been found. Kanchi Kohli reports on why both the projects are still moving ahead.

In this edition we look at a powerful documentary on the Muzaffarnagar communal riots that shook the nation in September 2013, the plight of Pakistani Hindus refugees in Delhi, the intent behind settling the forest rights claims of tribals, the crime, atrocities and discrimination against Dalits which is on  rise, the sad state of our nation's health care system, the message of Pope Francis’s latest Encyclical, and much more.

In this edition we look at the rising intolerance in country and how it can be alleviated as per the eminent historian Ms. Romila Thapar, how our nation is failing to nourish it's children, what is harming our coasts, natural flora and fauna, how we can use technology to make our society more equal and much more.

In this edition, we celebrate the International Women's Day by bringing out inspiring stories of Soni Sori and the girl footballers from Chennai. We also look into why India's solar mission is in dispute with WTO, the Good Samaritan guidelines that are made compulsory now, and more.

Ruling on a petition by French environmental groups and Greenpeace, France's conseil d'Etat (Supreme Court) suspended the decision to send the decommissioned warship Le Clemenceau to India for scrapping. Three days before his arrival in India on a brief visit, President Chirac ordered the recall. Gopal Krishna finds out more.

When women, of whatever class, are forced by circumstance to migrate, they expose themselves to new forms of violence and exploitation. A new UN report terms trafficking of women as migration 'gone bad' and the 'underside' of globalisation, notes Kalpana Sharma.

The Chennai High Court opined in December that industrialisation created the wealth necessary for protecting the environment. Sunita Dubey tests this claim in the United States and finds that the court ignored the US' system of local public participation and more.

Following Gene Campaign's challenge to the government's decision to withdraw all existing regulatory oversight over the import of GE foods, the Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre, writes Suman Sahai.

The Ministry of Agriculture moves to introduce adoption of genetically modified crops in India, in the name of food security. Scientists, however, are critical of this move. Neha Saigal reports.

Punjab needs water, and that means some of the water-guzzling crops must go. But questions of food security and corporatized agriculture confront the state's proposed shift, says Sudhirendar Sharma.

An environment magazine recently carried a Gujarat government-funded NGO's advertisement portraying vast tracts of Saurashtra and Kachchh supplied with drinking water through pipelines forking off of the Sardar Sarovar Canal. Reports in the print media were telling quite a different story. Himanshu Upadhyaya digs deeper.

Shortage of water has been a tale of woe in Rajasthan for decades. But this year, the state's largest circulated Hindi daily, Rajasthan Patrika, has motivated around 155,000 volunteers to clean up 388 discarded traditional ponds and wells. Ramesh Menon reports from Jaipur.

In a nation where floods and drought continually cause havoc in different regions, two recent events, one in Rajasthan and the other in Karnataka have brought citizens and media together to resolve acute water shortages. These are hopeful signs. The India Together editorial.

With its enchanting greenery and network of backwaters and rivers, Kerala is thought to be a water-plenty state. After all, Kerala gets 6 months of rainfall, 2.5 times higher than the national average. Despite this, the state has been experiencing water scarcity, with conditions worsening in some regions. P N Venugopal analyses the causes.

The MoEF's assessment of the environment, which should be the foundation for strategic planning in the ministry, is highly inadequate, and is a poor second to similar efforts by environmentalists themselves, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

A recent report by the UNICEF highlights the most critical issues faced by the Indian water sector today, urging the establishment to break new ground in resource management and utilization. Shripad Dharmadhikary discusses the key findings.

Third in a series of articles on civil society and governance, Jayaprakash Narayan says that political parties have to be transformed and maintains that visions of partyless democracy are unalloyed idealism.

Year after year, Police refuse to act and file thousands of complaints made by citizens. Arvind Verma looks at the FIR mechanism that forms the basis of criminal investigation.

As poverty in Karnataka acquires a larger urban face, municipal administrations must reorient themselves to meet basic needs, says Kathyayini Chamaraj.

When Executive Engineer S K Nagarwal reported corruption in railway track laying in West Bengal, his saga with colluding officials and contractors began. Now, supported by the S K Dubey foundation, a citizens' forum has sprung up to protect Nagarwal and other whistleblowers. Varupi Jain reports.

The government has recently announced its Resettlement and Rehabilitation policy. Even though there are some important improvements in it -- the move is timed during rising violence and resentment around the eastern region -- it appears to sidestep the tough questions. Shripad Dharmadhikary has the early verdict.

The initial euphoria over its emphatic electoral win over, the focus is now on realities within which the AAP will have to deliver on its promises. T R Raghunandan explores if the party can realise its vision of ‘swaraj,’ living up to the true ideals of decentralisation.

As the Prime Minister launches his vision for cities in the country, it is pertinent to ask what his record has been in the largest city of the state where he was Chief Minister before becoming PM. A recent study finds many pluses, and some minuses. Darryl D'Monte reports.

The Ishrat Jahan case has again hit the headlines with former home minister P Chidambaram being accused of rewriting an affidavit to prove the 19-year-old’s innocence. Ramesh Menon presents a recap and investigates where things stand now.

Last month the government announced the list of 9 new Smart Cities, taking the total of Smart Cities to 99.  Prachee Mishra of PRS legislative takes a look at the Smart Cities Mission and a few issues with it.

An Uttar Pradesh district's local functionaries feel the grassroots media's reporting of development needs deepening. A two-part series by The Hoot.org.

While Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has managed to push centre-stage the key concerns of 'universal literacy' and 'elementary education for all', a spirited pitch for its implementation is necessary to ensure that it does not remain floundering in India's most populous state. Puja Awasthi reports.

A recent report by Human Rights Watch, No Tally of the Anguish provides a much-needed exposure of the real story behind averages and official data about maternal mortality, writes Kalpana Sharma.

September 28 is being observed as the Right to Know day by the Freedom of Information Advocates Network, a global group of NGOs working for better transparency in governments. An India Together report on the recent strides citizen activity has made in India on the right to information.

Chitta Behera points out that the otherwise progressive draft Right to Information Act 2004 (prepared by the National Advisory Council) could do with some additional fine-tuning while still under review within the offices of our government.

The National Campaign for the People's Right to Information is asking citizens to put pressure on the Prime Minister to deliver on the UPA government's promise of bringing in a 'progressive, participatory and meaningful' right to information law.