2007

This edition brings you a few tips more, from naanimaa. Our grandmas sure know how to be eco-sensitive. Give these a try at home.
Eno Adds Pace
During winter, add a sachet of Eno to the batter and it will ferment quickly. The idlis will turn out softer.
Non-Stick made Easy
To convert an ordinary tawa into a non-stick one, rub a little salt and mustard powder with a slice of onion or potato in a little hot oil.
Not so Stubborn, Now

The Champs Elysees will never be the same again. From July this year, 20,600 rental bikes will be made available across Paris for anyone to use.
After paying a nominal annual membership fee of $ 38 [about £ 25], a user may swipe their pre-pay or credit card at any of the city’s 3,450 dedicated stations to release a bike. The first 30 minutes of use is free, after which the cyclist is charged on a gradually increasing scale, to encourage a quick return. Because personal details are stored when registering for the scheme, theft is kept to a minimum.

And, worse, the distribution of India’s freshwater is highly skewed. . .
India has 2.5 per cent of the global landmass and 4 per cent of the world’s freshwater resources. This has come under increasing demographic stress since India is home to about 16 per cent of global population. Next, the distribution of India’s freshwater is highly skewed. The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin with 33 per cent of India’s landmass has 60 per cent of total water flows, while the western coastline with 3 per cent of the area has another 11 per cent.

Bangalore relies up to 60 p.c. on groundwater. Seepage of polluted water alarms.
Groundwater sample from BTL Engineering College, Bommasandra, was sent for testing to the Chemical Laboratory, Department of Mines and Geology, last week. They found it contained 316 mg/per litre of nitrate as against the permissible limit of 45 mg/per litre.
A couple of days before, groundwater sample from Reva College of Engineering, Yelahanka, was sent for testing. It had 2.5 mg/per litre of fluoride as against the permissible limit of 1.5 mg/per litre.

Every city today has a growing problem of treating its sewage and sewerage waters. We take here the example of Bangalore, that lets 700 million litres of untreated sewage into the three valleys of the Bangalore plateau every day, contaminating groundwater and wells around these valleys. Add to this, an additional 600 million litres of water that residents in the seven City Municipal Corporations that form satellites around the city.