| Conservation |
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Milestone or Millstone?
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 03 Jul 2012
UNESCO's decision to include the Western Ghats to the World Heritage List has brought cheer to environmentalists. But since a heritage tag doesn't advocate a new legal framework to protect the designated property, putting all hopes on a heritage tag shall be erroneous. |
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MoEF: For environment or economy?
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 08 May 2012
Jairam Ramesh as environment minister constituted an expert panel to submit report on conservation of ecologically critical Western Ghats. But his successor Jayanthi Natarajan has decided against making the report public citing economic interests of concerned states. |
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Nothing green about 'green economy'
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 31 Oct 2011
Market forces are keen to put price tag on natural services but such an initiative can open a Pandora's Box of conflicting situations. Can we rule out trade-off in a capitalist market once nature and its services are commodified? |
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Greed eyeing green
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 16 Sep 2011
Is green capitalism a distraction from the real issues that the world needs to address to realize sustainable development? |
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Price-tag for ties with nature?
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 24 Aug 2011
By ignoring the cultural dimension of climate change adaptation, the capital centric efforts through economic valuation of nature and people's relations with it, will alter forever peoples' attitude towards it. |
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Carbon Crunching
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 06 Jul 2011
The World Bank has signed an agreement with the state government of Himachal Pradesh for the largest carbon revenue project. However, the conditions of the agreement indicate that instead of putting the carbon revenue mechanism to the competitive advantage of the stakeholders, such projects continue to serve the interest of the clients. |
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Ganga cleanup: Some unanswered questions
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 27 Jun 2011
The euphoria and cynicism generated by the World Bank's $1 billion loan is similar to the enthusiasm Rajiv Gandhi's Ganga Action Plan had generated in 1984. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Parliament had found in 2004 that Rs 960 crore spent on the project (till then) only ended-up increasing the level of pollution in the river. |
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My words, it's still fun!
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 05 Jun 2010
On the eve of the World Environment Day, Sudhirendar Sharma reminiscences personal account of environmental journalism of the past three decades. Self-critical and somewhat amusing, it unfolds many layers of what constitutes 'environment' and how indeed it has been perceived. |
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Consume, throw and then blame
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 09 Dec 2009
As rapidly growing mountains of trash raise a stink across the globe, it's time to discard the 'use and throw' culture which has no concern for environment and humanity. |
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| Education |
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The business of knowledge
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 26 Sep 2011
In the race to keep pace with the educational imperatives of growing population can quality of education be allowed to be compromised? Prakash Jha's film Aarakshan takes a compelling dig against privatisation in education. |
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Diversity deprived education
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 16 Feb 2011
As the entire education system has remained urban centric and is now becoming globalised with textbooks heavily borrowing from the western ideas and terms, the majority of children in a vast and diverse civilisation like India do not feel any relationship with the content, leading to alienation of majority. |
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| Food |
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Art, science and commerce of Brinjal
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 08 Mar 2010
If a large section of mainstream media is to be believed India may soon witness mass hunger, demoralised scientists and economic recession if Bt brinjal is not allowed to be commercially cultivated. |
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Not so green legacy
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 06 Oct 2009
While Dr Norman Borlaug is revered for his contribution in bringing Green Revolution to India, one can't ignore the deterioration of the plant ecology and destruction to the environment due to excess chemical inputs used to increase yield. |
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| Global Economy |
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The sky isn't the limit
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 30 Mar 2011
Climate Change, reducing size of arable land and availability of freshwater have forced some thinkers to explore options of vertical farms. But the capital-intensive nature of farmscraper remains a major concern. |
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Philanthrocapitalism often acts as a smokescreen to cover 'business-as-usual': Michael Edwards
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 15 Nov 2010
Business will achieve much more impact in the world by fixing itself than by trying to fix philanthropy and the not-for-profit sector, where it has little expertise or experience, says Michael Edwards to d-sector. |
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No less than a coup
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 21 Oct 2009
In the revised and updated edition of "Big Business, Poor Peoples", John Madeley tells us how big corporates have used their might to influence international negotiations to sway government policies; and the poor of developing countries are paying the price. |
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| Global Society |
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Does soccer give GDP a kick?
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 28 May 2010
People's sport football has come to symbolize political power, national pride and economic prowess. Can South Africa make expected socio-economic gains by hosting the world cup? |
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| Health |
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Unhappy! So what?
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 31 May 2011
The social pressure to feel happy has made people more miserable. The market is the sole gainer of this desperate search for happiness, offering unending items and services to make the consumer feel better. |
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| Indian Economy |
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Making sense of growth
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 04 Apr 2013
There is too much focus on meeting requirements of organized sector but does it have the capacity to employ vast numbers labelled as 'unskilled' and dependent on vocations in the unorganised sector? |
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Shut shop of MFIs
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 30 Jan 2012
For long, profit-obsessed microfinance institutions had a free run behind their stated ideal of providing micro-credit to the economically marginalised sections. However, they are in trouble now as governments have begun to realise that unrestrained MFIs are no better than the exploitative moneylenders. |
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Macro design behind micro-finance
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 23 Jan 2011
Microfinance has emerged as a dubious construct of the financial markets to ensure high income on the otherwise useless capital. That the poor will be trapped in this treadmill of 'poverty capital' has always been part of the microfinance design. |
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| Indian Society |
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The Politics of Raajneeti
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 23 Jun 2010
Raajneeti is not an epic but a film that mirrors the political reality on one extreme and the masses disconnect with reality on the other. Behind its unexpected success lie its disturbing undercurrents. |
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Not so well-intentioned welfare
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 12 Apr 2010
In Well Done Abba, Shyam Benegal deals with the serious issue of political economy in an entertaining way and leaves the viewer thinking about the manner our welfare machinery works. |
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Calendars speak for the commons
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 20 Jan 2010
The role of calendars has widened beyond commercials and now they convey crucial statements about social and cultural movements. |
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Naya Daur in New Age
By Sudhirendar Sharma | www.livemint.com | 15 Aug 2009
A movie like Naya Daur, first released in 1957, is still relevant to India more than four decades later for its gripping presentation of people v/s profit conflict. |
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| Infocomm |
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You can forget, internet won't!
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 23 Dec 2009
Psychologists believe that forgetting is good for mental health. But the expanding reach and capacity of information technology, particularly the internet, to store and remember all types of information can have critical consequences for humanity. |
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| Natural Resources |
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Nations divide, rivers unite!
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 18 Jun 2011
Rivers in South Asia flow across national boundaries and therefore, neighbouring countries remain in dispute over the usage of flowing water. Absence of effective institutional mechanisms and political accord make it expedient to bind communities with common cultural threads using multiple cultural maps of South Asia, superimposed on the river basins. |
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| Risks and Hazards |
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Yamuna may remain a sewer?
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 21 Nov 2012
In little over a century, the Yamuna has lost its 18 tributaries that used to carry surface flow from Aravalli slopes to enrich freshwater discharge into the river. To make matters worse, Delhi alone discharges 4,456 million litres of untreated and treated wastewater each day into Yamuna. |
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Chocolates, diapers and Durban
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 09 Jan 2012
Notwithstanding the rigid stance of the rich industrialised countries in climate negotiations, the economic meltdown, rather than climate crisis, may eventually transform their citizens' carbon-intensive consumptive pattern. |
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Mullaperiyar: Lives or livelihoods?
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 22 Dec 2011
Nearly hundred large dams in the country are over a century old. Controversy over Mullaperiyar dam provides an opportunity to evolve legal and institutional mechanism to ensure the safety of people and all such structures. |
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| Social Welfare |
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Thumbs down to microfinance!
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 12 Dec 2012
Despite generous support from policy makers, donor and private investors in recent years, the future of micro-finance continues to remain grim. |
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| Urban Development |
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Nightmare on the road
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 28 Dec 2009
With increased influence of auto-industry over policy making, massive expenditures have been made to expand space for private cars. However, the near monopoly of car owners over road has not improved the transport either. |
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| Water and Sanitation |
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To pee or not to pee
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 21 Apr 2013
Sustained pollution of major rivers; continuous decline in groundwater reserves; priority allocation to non-consumptive sectors; and, growing disparity in water distribution only indicates that the worst is still to come! |
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Toilet and the idea of a toilet
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 29 Oct 2012
Government officials and urban elites remain baffled by widespread open defecation despite several programmes and high subsidies to end the practice. Isn’t it time they think beyond aesthetics and hygiene and instead focus on psychology? |
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Use soap, even if it pollutes water!
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 15 Oct 2010
The handwashing campaign pushed by the international development agencies conveniently ignores the fact that contamination by soap will put additional stress on limited availability of clean drinking water and will leave poor more vulnerable to diseases. |
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'Right' is right but what is left...
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 24 Sep 2010
UN General Assembly in July 2010 adopted a resolution to recognize water as a fundamental human right, but does it make any difference to the nearly 900 million people without access to clean drinking water? |
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Nature's call isn't a dial away
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 30 Apr 2010
A recent UN report expresses surprise that India has more mobile phones than toilets but the fact remains that the issue of sanitation in India is more complex than viewed from the western perspective. |
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Hydrological madness runs deeper
By Sudhirendar Sharma | 25 Mar 2010
With the world water day gone by and a hot summer in the waiting, the case of groundwater anarchy should be back into contention. |
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