Columns
2020: A year of challenges, frustrations, and learning
This year has been replete with challenges. Many people have had to fend for themselves and done chores they have never done before. It has therefore been a year of a great learning curve. Here are three life lessons learnt from the pandemic.
Neha Sinha
Band, baaja, blessings and a big bottle of sanitiser
The pandemic has thrown many challenges, none more perplexing than the planning of an Indian wedding that is all about bear hugs, holding hands and crowding around.
Neha Sinha
The vulture soars again
For the first time, captive-bred White-backed vultures have been released in the wild. This is a big step towards turning the clock back on extinction- and then, in rewilding India.
englishteam
Farmers’ protests: Why are small and marginal farmers protesting against the farm acts?
The government says the new farm acts will be beneficial to small and marginal farmers. But, in reality, APMC mandis and MSP have offered protection to this category of farmers, who make up almost 85 per cent of the farming community in India.
Parijat Ghosh
Farmers Fury: Why the ongoing farmers’ protest evoke a sense of déjà vu and what lies ahead
When will the current farmers’ agitation end? Where will this protest on the roads reach? And why does it remind one of the farmers’ agitation led by Chaudhary Mahendra Singh Tikait in 1988 and 1989?
Arvind Kumar Singh
Birdwatching with the buffalos
A lazy afternoon, by the waterbody spent watching buffalos soaking in the sun and spotting birds that had flown in all the way from foreign lands. There were lessons to be learnt that day under the blue skies and the silent companions.
Neha Sinha
Rural India has just one question about the COVID-19 vaccine — “Will it be free for us?”
Rural India deals with harsh realities such as starvation and lack of access to healthcare. They have to be factored in too as India gears up for a gigantic COVID-19 vaccination programme.
Patralekha Chatterjee
Despite the pollution, the myriad colours of winter blossoms make cities tolerable
The air is full of winter perfume – the uplifting Parijat or Shiuli is throwing its blossoms on the ground, the orange stems of the flower sticking up as the white flower falls face-down. And there’s the Saptaparni, whose fragrance you will never forget.
Neha Sinha
Rejuvenating mighty rivers like the Yamuna and the Ganga requires the revival of smaller streams
The Katha, a direct tributary of the Yamuna has been a lifeline for several small villages once. It originated in a perennial pond in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Villagers remember its clean sparkling waters that flowed the year round.
Manoj Misra
Agriculture sector reforms: Time to adopt area and crop specific decentralised agricultural strategies
Agriculture policies should address the diversity of Indian farmers in terms of landholding size and socio-economic conditions, area wise market linkages, types of crops and agro-climatic conditions.