News

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Futuristic luxury in a water-scarce Himachal village

A savvy, innovative villa in Fagu, Shimla, is reimagining aesthetics and utility. In a water scarce region, it is offering practical insights into how a looming water crisis can be tackled.

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Tinker labs kindle rural kids’ technical creativity

By learning to code and tinker with salvaged electronic items, children in rural Odisha are getting hands-on learning, fostering curiosity and honing their natural scientific innovation to grasp lessons beyond the curriculum.

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Rural theatre acts out vaccine hesitancy

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Setting the stage to bust myths around vaccine hesitancy, tribal dance and theatre productions manage to convert the unvaccinated in Rajasthan, proving the power of tailor-made messaging.

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Tracking endangered northern river terrapins

Released and tracked - endangered northern river terrapins, bred in captivity, are closely monitored after being released into their natural mangrove habitat in the Sundarbans - thanks to India’s first-ever GPS tagging and tracking programme.

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Trafficked once, youth pedal to stop child exploitation

Once forced into child labour, young Biharis cycle across villages to create awareness about the horrors of child trafficking, as financial needs force families to send their children away on false promises of better livelihoods.

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“All my effort over the years will be wasted”

The Kurichiya tribal farmer hailed as “India's living paddy gene bank,” Cheruvayal Raman, is desperate to find a home for his seed collection, so that indigenous varieties can be preserved and propagated.

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Srinagar’s Lake Khushal Sar springs back to life

Thanks to a team of nature-lovers, decades of garbage is cleared from Lake Khushal Sar, spurring on more restoration of Srinagar's famous lakes and buoying the revival of lake-based livelihoods.

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Azolla “water weed” becomes cattle superfood

With the cost of maintaining livestock a constant burden for most poor farmers, azolla goes from being a pesky water weed to a sustainable and cost-effective superfood for cattle.

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Tikuli art – Born from bindis

Bright, elaborately designed bindis that 17th century women wore gave birth to the tikuli style of painting, which was hugely popular before fading into obscurity. Today the art form is seeing a revival, despite pandemic-induced setbacks.

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Odisha’s “Twitter Girl” helps solve people’s problems

This International Women’s Day, Village Square spotlights social media activist Charubala aka Deepa Barik. By tweeting and tagging the officials concerned, she helps resolve people’s grievances.

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Young twitcher becomes desert’s star birding guide

With a passion for birds, birding guide Musa Khan hopes his work will inspire other twitchers to become aware of rising bird deaths due to power transmission lines in the Thar desert.

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UP’s young water evangelist

A young woman receives international recognition for her work ensuring 22 UP villages - and counting - get clean, safe water and learn how to fight against contamination.

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Hot iron branding of babies fizzles out

In a unique approach, healthcare workers in rural Odisha engaged traditional healers – who once branded newborn babies with a hot iron to try and cure illnesses – to curb this harmful practice.

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Weavers keep Bastar’s pata saree tradition alive

Artisans are hopeful traditional handloom weaving will get a much-needed boost in Bastar, Chhattisgarh - home of the pata saree - as the government plans to start a weaving hub.

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Fish on their plate, money in their wallet

In underdeveloped Mayurbhanj, Odisha, women sustainably cultivate fish that not only brings them money but ensures better nutrition for their family.

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A young woman engineer spurs hope for pottery in Kashmir

Traditional potters struggling to survive are confident of better business again after a young woman who found hope through pottery is bringing it back into the limelight.

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Joy of making banking accessible to women

Local banker Lakhimi Baruah saw how women were ignored in banks so launched Assam’s first cooperative bank for women, ensuring thousands of marginalised women get access to banks, gaining financial literacy and empowerment.

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How a school parliament grooms Bastar tribal children

In a remote tribal village in Chhattisgarh, a government school takes initiatives to make learning interesting, using a bal sansad to build children's problem-solving and leadership skills.

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Profiting from propagating native seeds

Hearing of a likely seed famine, marginal farmer Sudam Sahu of Odisha started conserving native seeds and now champions organic farming with those seeds.

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Greening barren land – Bihar’s guava guru

Once a teacher fondly called ‘guruji,’ Satyendar Manjhi now turns barren land into guava orchards – all thanks to the inspirational advice of India’s ‘mountain man’.