In addition to disruption of seasons and rainfall, from less cold to warm and warmer, #Nilgiris feels the heat of climate change. The mean temperature has risen in the last two centuries since the British invasion, and the #climatechange experienced in Nilgiris is anthropogenic in nature. Replanting Shola grass, remapping water resources and recharging springs are ways to mitigate the climate-change damage in the Nilgiris. Vijayalakshmi Sridhar reports: https://www.indiaspend.com/earthcheckindia/nilgiris-reel-under-water-shortage-climate-change-897217

India's population is set to age, without widespread access to health insurance or pensions. As people live longer, they will need state support for longer but the state itself will have fewer people from whom to collect resources. What are the challenges ahead for the country? Read our story to know more: https://www.indiaspend.com/governance/what-india-needs-to-do-urgently-to-support-its-ageing-population-897338

Celebrity members of parliament (MPs) such as film stars, sportspersons and singers logged lower attendance, participated in fewer debates, asked fewer questions and introduced fewer private members’ bills in the 17th Lok Sabha, an IndiaSpend analysis of government data shows. Read on: https://www.indiaspend.com/governance/how-did-celebrity-mps-perform-in-the-17th-lok-sabha-898714

Poor infrastructure facilities are often associated with inadequate learning outcomes in tribal districts such as Nagaland, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh. However, this correlation does not hold for Odisha and Chhattisgarh, which have better electricity and water, sanitation and hygiene facilities. Despite these improvements, districts like Narayanpur and Bijapur, with nearly 80% tribal population, exhibit the poorest learning outcomes, attributed to a shortage of qualified teachers and a poor pupil ratio. Experts assert that the quality of the teaching-learning process significantly influences learning levels: https://www.indiaspend.com/education-check/why-learning-outcomes-for-tribal-districts-are-poor-899171

Bihar has the highest incidence of multidimensional poverty, according to the Niti Aayog’s index for 2023. As a result, 85% of migrants from the state are men, and over 90% are migrating in search of work. Many women who remain in the state’s villages dependly on #MGNREGS work, but a combination of factors is affecting the programme’s effectiveness, we found. Read on: https://www.indiaspend.com/governance/how-mgnregs-continues-to-falter-in-bihar-899476

In January and ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, PM Narendra Modi announced a new target to achieve solarisation of 10 million households in India. The scheme is supposed to push India closer to its earlier target of 40 GW rooftop solar by 2026 and is in conjunction with its bid to become a global leader on environment-related matters. But will it be easy to hit the 10 million mark? If consumers are to get up to 300 units free power per month and have savings up to Rs 18,000 a year, what is the calculation and does it work? Read our explainer. https://www.indiaspend.com/explainers/explained-the-fine-print-in-modi-govts-rooftop-solarfree-electricity-scheme-899893

The government explains the introduction of the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand as the second stage of codification, the first having been taken in the mid-1950s with the introduction of the Hindu code bills, laws intended to codify and reform Hindu personal laws in India. Charu Bahri explains what the code gets right, and where it falls short. Read on: https://www.indiaspend.com/governance/1-step-forward-many-steps-back-in-uttarakhands-uniform-civil-code-900242

In light of Bengaluru’s water crisis, authorities have imposed restrictions on non-essential water usage. We delve into the crucial challenges confronting the city’s water management, as outlined in a report by WELL Labs. Primary concerns include overexploited groundwater, lack of lake maintenance, restricted pipeline access, and underuse of treated water. Read our report to grasp Bengaluru's water dynamics and its principal challenges. https://www.indiaspend.com/earthcheckindia/bengalurus-water-crisis-key-challenges-in-water-management-900523

The latest findings from the World Happiness Report 2024 are in, and they provide answers about what makes life worth living to different people. Despite India ranking 126 of 143 countries, there's a noteworthy revelation: older women in India are happier than the men. The report dives deep into various factors influencing happiness, from age and gender to caste and education. It's not just about fleeting moments of happiness; it's about life satisfaction - a cognitive appraisal of how one perceives their entire life. Our story on the nuances of happiness and well-being in India and around the world: #WorldHappinessReport #LifeSatisfaction #IndiaHappiness https://www.indiaspend.com/development/older-indian-women-happier-than-the-men-new-report-says-900829

“We cannot think of groundwater only when there is a crisis,” says environmental scientist & wetlands expert, T.V. Ramachandra of the Indian Institute of Science, on the Bengaluru water crisis. Groundwater is a dynamic phenomenon & data must be updated regularly, he says. https://www.indiaspend.com/indiaspend-interviews/unplanned-urbanisation-has-affected-bengalurus-vegetation-cover-and-water-bodies-901276

Miltefosine, a medicine used to treat a skin manifestation of deadly kala-azar, is linked with eye problems, including blindness. The WHO documented 83 such cases in India, some of whom have lost either vision from one eye or both eyes. The Union government has issued guidelines to prevent eye problems for patients who take miltefosine. However, there is no plan for those who have already lost their eyesight after taking miltefosine. Read on: https://www.indiaspend.com/health/how-a-drug-to-treat-dermal-kala-azar-is-affecting-patients-eyesight-901497

“We are completely dependent on the other side of the border for any needs, be it for seeing a doctor, buying vegetables or any other essentials,” says Anjali Sardar of Chor Megha, an Indian hamlet on the other side of a wire fence on the Bangladesh border. For the residents of Chor Meghna, their identity card is everything. They cannot enter/exit their hamlet without proof. Our story: https://www.indiaspend.com/governance/why-750-indians-on-bangladesh-border-live-on-the-other-side-of-a-wire-fence-902151

This summer is set to be more intense, with projections of extreme heat and more heatwave days. But the heat does not affect everyone uniformly. An analysis by the Housing and Land Rights Network shows that areas with high concentrations of homeless populations in the national capital are also secondary heat islands, exacerbating the experience of summers for those living on Delhi’s streets. Read on: https://www.indiaspend.com/data-viz/dataviz-how-delhis-homeless-population-experiences-summers-902584

Kartik Naik works as a mason’s helper in Kerala’s Ernakulam, and does not plan to return home to Odisha’s Ganjam district to cast his vote during the 2024 general elections and state assembly polls. It is expensive and time consuming, which he presently cannot afford. India’s last election saw 300 million electors not casting their vote, and one of the prominent reasons was internal migration. What has changed in 5 years to facilitate voting rights for migrants? Our story: https://www.indiaspend.com/governance/migrant-workers-struggle-to-be-counted-during-elections-903236

The latest World Air Quality Report by IQAir, a Swiss air quality monitoring group, has ranked Guwahati as the second most polluted city globally. Environmentalists noted that the Swiss air quality data for Guwahati are a bit on the higher side than the data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). If the Swiss air quality report has combined Byrnihat--an industrial town in Meghalaya state on the border with Assam--it is quite possible to have a high average annual PM 2.5 concentration of 105.4 µg/m³ for Guwahati. IndiaSpend spoke to environmentalists and experts who said that irrespective of the Swiss air quality report, Guwahati’s pollution levels are on a higher side. Read on: https://www.indiaspend.com/pollution/how-guwahatis-air-became-worlds-2nd-most-polluted-903501

More Indian girls are enrolling in secondary school and drop-out rates at that level have fallen, but still, three in five girls aged 16 to 18 years are out of school, government data show. More than three in five Indian women are out of the labour force, and while unemployment rates have fallen to under 3%, this number masks much under-employment, studies show. Our dataviz: https://www.indiaspend.com/data-viz/how-indias-women-girls-have-fared-in-the-modi-years-904079

In the Narendra Modi government's first term, India’s out-of-pocket health expenditure fell from 64% of total health spending in 2014 to 48% in 2019. This is still higher than BRICS partners and other large economies. Among neighbours, India did better than Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. But, this is due to under-utilisation of services, and not from increased financial protection, experts say. In 2014, India had 31.5 hospitalisations for every 1,000 people. By 2017-18, this number fell to 28 hospitalisations per 1,000 people. This is the first time in four decades that hospitalisation rate has declined. Read on: https://www.indiaspend.com/health/modi-govt-doubled-spending-on-insurance-not-enough-on-health-infrastructure-904388

Over 4 years since the pandemic first hit India, how has the #publichealth system re-oriented to prepare for such health emergencies, which multiple studies predict are likely to be more frequent? As India votes for 18th Lok Sabha, Charu Bahri takes stock: https://www.indiaspend.com/health/what-india-should-have-learnt-from-the-pandemic-years-905695

In Banni, one of Asia's finest grasslands in Gujarat's Kachchh, a tree first introduced in the 1880s by the British is leading to its degradation. The Prosopis juliflora is referred to as ‘gando baval’ (mad tree) locally, as it shrinks the space for native species including the grasslands, severely affecting the pastoralists. But the tree has also been a source of livelihood for the Vada Koli community for generations. Our story: https://www.indiaspend.com/environment/the-mad-tree-that-sustains-bannis-vada-koli-community-905989

One of India’s biggest donors to political parties via electoral bonds--Torrent Power--supplies power to Bhiwandi near Mumbai. Powerloom owners and public representatives allege that power bills in Bhiwandi have doubled or tripled since the franchise was brought in, which has dealt a blow to the Rs 10,000-crore powerloom industry here. Tanvi Deshpande reports: https://www.indiaspend.com/governance/why-one-of-indias-biggest-electoral-bond-donors-is-a-touchy-topic-in-bhiwandi-906231