By Rajiv Shah I was recently forwarded a complaint by social activist Jatin Sheth , who leads Abad Amdavad , an Ahmedabad-based civic rights NGO. The organization regularly takes up municipal grievances in a city that aspires to be a cutting-edge metropolis—one eyeing to hold the Commonwealth Games , followed by the Olympics . It is quite another matter that independent international studies have ranked Ahmedabad among the environmentally least resilient when evaluated alongside 72 global cities. A few weeks ago, Abad Amdavad submitted a formal representation to civic authorities, arguing that the city’s current infrastructure and administrative apparatus fall far short of what is required to host an event like the 2030 Commonwealth Games, let alone the Olympic Games six years later. Given current ground realities, “the city’s civic condition may embarrass the nation unless urgent, structural reforms are pushed,” Sheth wrote in a letter addressed to Prime Minister N...
By Vikas Meshram* In the hills of southern Rajasthan, where small farms cling to rocky slopes and morning smoke curls above mud houses, a quiet revolution is taking root. The village is Seranagla, in Anandpuri tehsil of Banswara district. Among its residents is 65-year-old Kankudevi Kama Damor, known across the region as Beej Mata or the "Seed Mother." For years, she has been collecting, conserving and sharing indigenous seeds, safeguarding an agricultural heritage that many feared would disappear forever. Her work is not merely about farming. It is about memory, culture, nutrition and resilience in a changing climate.