Category: sustainability
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Harvest of the Pandemic
Fizala Tayebulla The pandemic has brought in several structural and value changes in our lives. Some of the changes that have transcended us being physically constraint to our homes are the changes in our lifestyles and values of a ‘safe’ and healthy life (ushering in practices that have a fighting chance at beating Covid-19). We…
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Plastic Woes and the Pandemic
Divya Mehra The world only recently started taking baby steps to deal with the troublesome nature of plastic and was coming to an understanding of the scale of damage it has done and can do to our environment, that the year 2020 brought with itself a pandemic. Besides causing unprecedented global health and economic crisis,…
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National Capital in Pandemic: Visualising the story so far
Sonali Chauhan On August 11, we completed five months since COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic. With over 22 lakh cases and around 45,000 fatalities, India is amongst the worst-hit nations after the US and Brazil. In the first eight days of August, the total number of new cases reported from India surpassed the U.S.…
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Did the Pandemic Help in Reducing Global Carbon Emissions?
Divya Mehra Since the beginning of the year 2020, the world is fighting a life-threatening enemy in the form of a virus that has turned the lives of people around. The Coronavirus, which was identified as SARS-CoV-2, is a new type of virus, which causes a highly infectious disease known as COVID-19 that has brought…
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A Healthcare System Which Cares About Women
Himanshu Choudhery Amidst COVID-19, when the situation in India is getting severe day by day, our public health care system seems to have come under considerable scrutiny for the several loopholes that have surfaced. While most of the hospitals are converted into COVID care centres, people are barely getting admitted to the hospitals for other…
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Cities – Emerging Hotspots for Infectious Diseases
Divya Mehra Cities and pandemics have shared a long history and over the decades it has been witnessed that cities have emerged to be the epicentre for infectious diseases. This is often attributed to its very nature – the population densities and inter/intra connections have turned out to be the important factors. Cities act as…
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Urban Wastewater Use in Agriculture: Solution to Water Crisis or Health Hazard?
Shashank Bhardwaj When I read about water scarcity and the issue of water wastage, to me it seems that it is inevitably related to the urban landscape. For instance, in today’s time, when the world is fighting the pandemic, organizations and governments are urging urban dwellers to use water carefully while washing their hands. The…
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Fast-fashion: Clothing the Planet or Stripping it?
Ajay Immanuel Gonji On 2 October 2015, Swedish global fashion company Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) opened its first India store in the national capital, New Delhi, recording opening-day sales of more than ₹1.75 crores, with an average billing of ₹27,000 per minute. Ever since, H&M India has established 47 stores across 24 Indian cities, growing…
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Pandemic and the Urban Water Crisis
Divya Mehra As the world fights the coronavirus outbreak, washing hands at regular intervals has become the most important protective measure to prevent the spread of the virus. As soon as experts confirmed that washing hands with soap thoroughly for 20 seconds will rip out the fat coating of the virus, thus making it inactive,…
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Alternate Urban Green Infrastructure
Vijaylakshmi When we think of green spaces in urban areas, we generally have in mind parks, forest remnants, and water bodies like wetlands and lakes in and around the city. Depending on their size, habitat heterogeneity and expanse, these ecosystems are believed to conserve urban biodiversity in varying capacities. If given an opportunity to add…