Jan 2006

Dug wells have become extinct, borewells are drying up. Surface water sources are fast dwindling.
Most people attribute this situation to decreasing rainfall and to excess drawing of water from borewells.

There was a time when we were amused, even ashamed, of the Indian’s ability to improvise. Today, this is a skill that is winning admiration.
Are we always going to be the Land of Jugad—where quick-fix improvisations are used to tackle life’s hassles? The bigger question is how can we take this intrinsic ability to improvise and convert it into a national advantage. How do we take our attention away from small-time jugad to high-value and high-impact innovation?

Floods recently exposed the city’s unplanned development. And how it had allowed encroachment on its lakes and catchment areas. Amit Upadhye delves into the greed of the land mafia and finds out how it will be the ruin of us all...

As Bangalore does not have a natural drinking water source, lakes were built to store water. At one time the city boasted 596 lakes, but today the number of ‘live’ lakes has dwindled to 64.
Over the years several lakes have been encroached on to make way for the construction of highrises. Many of the city’s old lakes have been converted