Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<keyword id="3820" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="mukesh-ambani" source="Orion">Mukesh Ambani</keyword>, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, has been appointed as the member of <keyword id="223206" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="advisory-committee" source="Orion">Advisory Committee</keyword> to the President of the 28th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Mukesh Ambani joined other important global leaders on the COP28 Advisory Council such as Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, Olafur Grimsson, Chairman of Arctic Circle (Former President of Iceland), Laurent Fabius, President of COP21 / Paris Agreement, Former Prime Minister of France, Francesco La Camera, Director General, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Bob Dudley, Chair of the Oil &amp; Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), former CEO of BP. Mukesh Ambani is the only Indian, other than <keyword id="111359" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sunita-narain" source="Orion">Sunita Narain</keyword>, Director General, Centre for Science and Environment, on the Advisory <keyword id="47865" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="committee" source="Orion">Committee</keyword> to the President of COP28. The COP28 UAE Advisory Committee brings together the climate expertise of thought leaders from countries across six continents. Representing policy, industry, energy, finance, civil society, youth, and humanitarian action, the 31 members of the Committee, of which 65 per cent are from the Global South, will provide guidance and counsel to the COP Presidency in the run up to COP28 and beyond. The UNFCCC Secretariat announced in January 2023 appointed <keyword id="2021753" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sultan-ahmed-al-jaber" source="Orion">Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber</keyword>, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change, as COP 28 President-Designate. UAE has been chosen to host the 28th session of the Conference of Parties (COP 28) to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) from November 30, 2023 to December 12, 2023. It will be held at Dubai Expo City. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/lic-shares-surge-over-3-after-it-posts-a-five-fold-jump-in-q4-net-profit/articleshow/100495712.cms">LIC shares surge over 3% after it posts a five-fold jump in Q4 net profit</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/adani-enterprises-titan-eicher-motors-tata-motors-reliance-and-other-big-companies-performance-in-nifty-50/articleshow/100474408.cms">Big boys drive Nifty50’s revenue and profit growth in FY23</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/gqg-partners-rajiv-jain-doubles-down-on-his-adani-bet/articleshow/100450041.cms">GQG Partners’ Rajiv Jain doubles down on his Adani bet</a>

Mukesh Ambani joins COP28 Advisory Committee

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=TIME&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">TIME</a> just announced its annual list of the world's '<keyword id="1649485" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="100-Most-Influential-People">100 most influential people</keyword>' yesterday and while the list saw quite a few big names such as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ADELE&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Adele</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=LEONARDO+DI+CAPRIO&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Leonardo Di Caprio</a>, Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg with Priscilla Chan, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=AZIZ+ANSARI&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Aziz Ansari</a>, and Caitlyn Jenner to name a few, it also saw seven Indians shine through on the list- starting with the flawless <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=PRIYANKA+CHOPRA&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Priyanka Chopra</a> who graced one of the covers of the magazine. 
 <keyword id="6360866" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="time">TIME</keyword> even got a bunch of famous and respected people to wrote a little note about all the winners and the messages are inspirational. 
 
We at Business Insider made a list of the seven Indian personalities on the 2016 list of TIME's 100 most influential people. 
 
Have a look!

These are the 7 most influential Indians according to TIME

India experienced extreme weather events almost every day in the first nine months of this year which led to nearly 3,000 <keyword id="6419711" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="deaths" source="Orion">deaths</keyword>, according to a report released on Wednesday. Published by the independent think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the report said the climate-vulnerable country had extreme weather on 86 per cent of days from January to September 2023. The CSE said 2,923 people died, almost two million hectares of <keyword id="18620" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="crops" source="Orion">crops</keyword> were ruined, 80,000 homes were destroyed and more than 92,000 animals were killed. But these numbers might be even higher because not all the data is collected, it said. "'India 2023: An assessment of extreme weather events' attempts to build an evidence base on the frequency and expanding geography of extreme weather events in the country. As this assessment clearly shows, what the country has witnessed so far in 2023 is the new 'abnormal' in a warming world," said the CSE director general Sunita Narain. Madhya Pradesh reported the highest number of extreme weather events at 138. However, the largest number of deaths occurred in Bihar (642), followed by Himachal Pradesh (365) and Uttar Pradesh (341). Punjab recorded the highest number of animal deaths while Himachal Pradesh reported the most damaged houses due to extreme weather events. In the southern region, Kerala saw the highest count of extreme weather days (67) and deaths (60). Telangana suffered maximum effect on crop area (over 62,000 hectares). The state also witnessed high animal casualties (645). Karnataka faced severe destruction, with over 11,000 houses demolished. In northwest India, Uttar Pradesh had the most extreme weather days at 113. Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, and Rajasthan were also significantly affected. In the eastern and northeastern regions, Assam registered maximum extreme weather events (102), with the state losing 159 livestock and over 48,000 hectares of crops devastated. Nagaland saw over 1,900 houses destroyed. The CSE said January was slightly warmer than average, while February broke records, becoming the warmest in 122 years. India had its sixth driest February and the driest August in 122 years. It said lightning and storms were the most common disasters, occurring on 176 out of 273 days and claiming 711 lives. Most of these deaths occurred in Bihar. However, the most significant devastation came from heavy rains, <keyword id="48088" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="floods" source="Orion">floods</keyword>, and landslides, causing over 1,900 casualties. According to research conducted by a different think tank, more than 80 per cent of Indians live in districts vulnerable to <keyword id="6375923" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="climate" source="Orion">climate</keyword> risks.

India saw extreme weather events almost every day in first 9 months this year: Report

Climate change has never been fair. While the battle remains a global effort, the disproportional manner in which <keyword id="2938413" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="climate-disaster" source="Orion">climate disaster</keyword> tramples on the weakest makes it an achingly cruel opponent. For example, despite exhibiting one of the lowest per-capita emissions in the world, <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> stands to be one of the worst affected. The cataclysmic cogs of climate events have already begun turning, with a new report mourning that India has witnessed a <keyword id="54165" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="natural-disaster" source="Orion">natural disaster</keyword> almost every day of 2022 so far. The report, released in collaboration between the <keyword id="6357976" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="centre-for-science-and-environment" source="Orion">Centre for Science and Environment</keyword> (<keyword id="6367898" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="cse" source="Orion">CSE</keyword>) and Down To Earth magazine, assesses that out of the 273 days between January 1 and September 30, some form of extreme weather event shrouded some part of India in tragedy for 242 of them — or 88% of the time. Additionally, the sheer range of the disaster types seems eyebrow-raising. India simultaneously recorded one of the wettest Januaries and one of the driest Marches in over 120 years. In addition, eastern and northeastern India recorded abnormally cold day and night-time temperatures in February, which can be devastating for crop growth due to frost development. This too can be attributed to climate change, which is making these kinds of record-breaking events occur more frequently than they should. “What the country has witnessed so far in 2022 is the new abnormal in a warming world. There is a clear spike in frequency and intensity of extreme events that we are seeing,” said CSE director general Sunita Narain. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Death and destruction toll higher than ever" comment="subhead" text="Death and destruction toll higher than ever">Death and destruction toll higher than ever</cmsannotation> The repercussions of the warming trend remain painfully real. According to the report, these climate change-induced natural disasters killed almost 3,000 people and 70,000 livestock, and destroyed around 4.1 lakh houses just this year alone. They also affected 18 lakh hectares of crop area — about 1% of the total cropped area in the nation. For an agrarian country, this could spell significant social and economic consequences. The worst-hit regions include India’s central and northwestern parts, which recorded almost 200 days of extreme weather events and grieved the highest death toll than any other region, with 887 lives lost. Next in line is the northeastern region with 783 deaths. Northeast India was continuously ravaged by extremely heavy rains and floods throughout the southwest monsoon season. Assam, which was submerged for months, reported the highest number of damaged houses and animal deaths than any other state in the nation. Further, the report adds that extreme weather events brought Madhya Pradesh to its knees every second day. But surprisingly, the state did not suffer from any crop damage. Experts assert this to “gaps in loss and damage reporting” — a recurring phenomenon that could significantly inflate these numbers if adequately accounted for. A similar trend is observed when we compare lives lost to heatwaves as well. Experts reckon that the 45 lives that succumbed to heatwaves would be much larger if adjusted for its long-term effects. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="A silver lining" comment="subhead" text="A silver lining">A silver lining</cmsannotation> In between all this muck, there is some good news. Despite cyclones tearing down large swaths of areas in the country, the direct fatalities caused by these disasters remained low at just 2. Experts posit that this is primarily due to effective and early forecasting and warning systems, which allowed for better mitigation measures to be put in place. “This is because of the amazing work done by the <keyword id="6355166" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="india-meteorological-department" source="Orion">India Meteorological Department</keyword> (IMD) on cyclone forecasting so that there is adequate warning to governments. It is also because state governments — particularly those in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal — have improved their systems of disaster management,” Narain explained. <h2>Recommended stories:</h2> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="95252174" title="Climate disasters are crippling the lives of more than 150 million children across Africa, a new report unveils" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="95251448" title="Nations are placing an unrealistic demand on land to fulfil climate pledges, which could severely hamper food production" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"><payload><![CDATA[seealso]]></payload></div> <div type="QUIZ" hostid="261" msid="94051791" title="Sustainability Quiz : Climate Change" mstype="1" mssubtype="2"><payload><![CDATA[sustainability-quiz]]></payload></div>

A climate change-induced natural disaster has struck India every day of 2022 so far, new CSE report shows

The national capital's air quality slipped into the "very poor" category on Friday morning, and was expected to decline sharply over the weekend owing to changing weather and "significant" stubble burning. The city's overall air quality index (AQI) stood at 306 on Friday. It was 276 on Thursday. The overall AQI at DTU, <keyword id="61537" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dwarka">Dwarka</keyword> Sector 8, Narela, Wazirpur and Bawana was 312, 316, 310, 312, and 341 respectively, which falls in the "very poor" category. An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe. The Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality research and forecast service, SAFAR, said the reason for deterioration of air quality at present is the "gradual change in weather conditions -- slow surface winds and cooling -- towards unfavourable side". The share of stubble burning to Delhi's PM2.5 concentration would be 10 percent on Friday. It is predicted to increase to 18 per cent on Saturday, according to SAFAR data. "Stubble burning incidents in <keyword id="41646" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Haryana">Haryana</keyword>, Punjab, and nearby border regions have shown an increasing trend over the last three days. Additionally, a few new fires have been observed over western <keyword id="6357713" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Uttar-Pradesh">Uttar Pradesh</keyword>," it said in a report. The period between October 15 and November 15 is considered critical as maximum number of stubble burning incidents take place in this span in Punjab and adjoining states and is one of the main reasons for alarming spike in pollution in Delhi-NCR. Despite a ban on stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, farmers continue to defy it amid lack of financial incentives. State governments are providing 50 to 80 per cent subsidy to farmers and cooperative societies to buy modern farm equipment for in-situ management of paddy straw and running a massive awareness campaign against stubble burning. While the Delhi government has repeatedly stressed that stubble burning was the major reason for Delhi's deteriorating air quality, the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority has said local sources of pollution was the primary concern. "It is not that local pollution has increased, it is that weather has turned adverse and so, air pollution is again on the rise. If we keep focusing on external reasons, we will not fix our problems," EPCA member Sunita Narain said on Thursday. Kuldeep Srivastava, a senior scientist at the India Metereological Department (IMD), said predominantly slow <keyword id="2765449" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="easterly-winds">easterly winds</keyword> are blowing in the region. Slow wind speed is not favourable for dispersion of pollutants. There is an active <keyword id="511525" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="western-disturbance">western disturbance</keyword> over parts of Jammu and Kashmir, <keyword id="44522" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Uttarakhand">Uttarakhand</keyword>, Punjab and Haryana. It is expected to reduce the impact of stubble burning slightly, he said. "After October 20, the wind speed is likely to increase and as a result the city's air quality is expected to improve," Srivastava said. IMD officials said that due to the occurrence of mist and high concentration of pollutants, the visibility levels at Safdarjung and Palam decreased to 1,500 metres at 8:30 am from 2,500 metres at 5:30 pm on Thursday. GVS DV DV

Delhi air quality which is very poor is likely to shop further this weekend

<ul><li>A report by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) claims that most big Indian brands, including Dabur, Patanjali and Emami, are selling <keyword id="8464467" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="adulterated-honey">adulterated honey</keyword>. And that these brands failed an adulteration test carried out by a foreign laboratory. </li><li>10 out of 13 honey brands have failed the ‘purity test, the investigation by CSE reveals.</li><li>However, companies have refuted these allegations. In an email statement to Business Insider, Dabur said that “the recent reports seem motivated and aimed at maligning our brand.”</li><li>Indian billionaire businessman Acharya Balkrishan from Patanjali also called the report “a plot to defame Indian natural honey industry.” And, added that it might be a way of promoting German technology in India.</li></ul>Top branded honey producers in India, including Dabur, Patanjali, and Emami are allegedly selling adulterated honey with a modified sugar, according to a report by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). It claims that the big brands failed an adulteration test carried out by a foreign laboratory. However, the leading Indian brands have denied these reports calling them malicious and baseless; and that they comply with the guidelines laid down by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). In an email statement to Business Insider, Dabur said that the recent reports “seem motivated and aimed at maligning our brand. We assure our consumers that <keyword id="425049" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dabur-Honey">Dabur Honey</keyword> is 100% Pure. It is 100% indigenous, collected naturally from Indian sources and packed with no added sugar or other adulterants.” The manufacturer of Zandu Pure Honey, Emami also said that its “honey conforms and adheres to all the protocols and quality norms/standards laid down by the Government of India and its authorized entities such as FSSAI.” Indian billionaire businessman Acharya Balkrishan from Patanjali has called the report “a plot to defame Indian natural honey industry.” He also added that it might be a way of promoting German technology in India. CSE investigates how the brands adulterated honey The CSE investigation reveals that the companies mixed the naturally acquired honey from bees with sugar syrup procured from rice, corn, beetroot, and sugarcane and passed them off as pure. It also added that almost all brands of honey being sold in Indian markets are adulterated with sugar syrup. The organisation said the repeated use of the terms fructose and glucose on Chinese websites prompted them to look at the imports of these from China.And, when they checked Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry export import database, the two of the FSSAI named syrups — rice syrup and golden syrup — could not be found. However, “Invert sugar” had an HS code but limited shipments. These are the findings: The adulterated honey passed tests of purity when first tested at the Centre for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food (CALF) at the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in Gujarat. However, when the same brands were tested using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) laboratory tests, which is currently used globally to check for such modified sugar syrups – almost all big and small brands failed, the report said. <ul><li>77% of the samples were found to be adulterated with addition of sugar syrup.</li><li>Out of 22 samples tested, only five passed all the tests.</li><li>Honey samples from leading brands such as Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath, Zandu, Hitkari and Apis Himalaya, all failed the NMR test.</li><li>Only 3 out of the 13 brands – Saffola, Markfed Sohna and Nature’s Nectar (one out of two samples) — passed all the tests. </li></ul>CSE raises the red flag The director general of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Sunita Narain said, “It is a food fraud more nefarious and more sophisticated than what we found in our 2003 and 2006 investigations into soft drinks; more damaging to our health than perhaps anything that we have found till now – keeping in mind the fact that we are still fighting against a killer COVID-19 pandemic with our backs to the wall. This overuse of sugar in our diet will make it worse.” CSE also claimed that the Indian government might be aware of this adulteration and is not interested in digging it. “We filed an application under the Right To Information Act (RTI) We filed an application under the Right To Information Act (RTI) with the Imports Division of FSSAI. FSSAI has said it has sent the RTI application to another division but has not cared to say which one So, either FSSAI knows what is going on, and is not telling us—the consumers—or, it is fishing around to see if it can find the honey fraud and stop it,” the report added. <div type="image" title="new honey" msid="79545208" hostid="261"></div> Business Insider checked out the labels of <keyword id="3239929" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Patanjali-honey">Patanjali Honey</keyword> and Dabur Honey to check if it mentions Fructose-Glucose ratio, which needs to be under 0.95-1.5% by mass. However, the company does not reveal that detail on the label. The labels from both these companies did mention that there is no added sugar and the products match the FSSAI standards. Debunking ‘pure honey’ myths Pure honey is pasteurized but contains no added ingredients. Myth: You cannot test honey’s purity Fact: To test adulteration in honey, you can add a teaspoon of the honey in a glass full of water. The adulterated honey will dissolve quickly in the water, whereas the pure honey with a more dense texture will settle right at the bottom as lumps. However, the CSE claims that it even manipulated the first safety check at CSE, so it can easily deceive the home-based tests. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/top-stock-movers-ril-maruti-indigo-dhfl-spicejet-wipro-future-retail-and-others/articleshow/79541459.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Sensex, Nifty hit record high — these are the top movers in trade today</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/india-may-reportedly-block-wikipedia-if-the-site-doesnt-delete-the-map-showing-aksai-chin-as-a-part-of-china/articleshow/79541391.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">India may reportedly block Wikipedia if the site doesn't delete the map showing Aksai Chin as a part of China</a>

Dabur, Patanjali, and Emami decry a study that found what you buy is not all honey

A report by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=cse&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Centre for Science and Environment</a> (CSE) has stated Alappuzha in Kerala, Panaji and Mysuru are the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=cleanest+cities+in+india&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">cleanest cities in India</a>. 
 
The survey-‘Not in my backyard’-, which is based on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=waste+management&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">solid waste management</a> practises in towns in India, placed Delhi at the "bottom of the heap". 
 "Alappuzha, Panaji and Mysuru are three of the <keyword id="3487316" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="cleanest-cities-in-India">cleanest cities in India</keyword>, with municipal waste management systems that actually work. CSE rated Indian cities on their management of solid waste - metros like Delhi feature at the bottom of the heap," a latest rating by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said. 
 
"This book started as a survey, we wanted to simply know which city is India's cleanest. We knew that once we found out which is the cleanest, we would also find out what makes it so. This would give us the answers for future policy," said CSE Director General Sunita Narain. 
 
Noting that the last survey to understand quantity and composition of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=garbage&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">garbage</a> was done over a decade ago, CSE said that the methodology used to calculate waste generated is to simply extrapolate an assumed quantity estimate with the population. 
 
Referring to the Department of Economic Affairs position paper on solid waste management of 2009, CSE said that urban India was already producing some 80,000 MT of waste a day. 
 
It projected that by 2047, India would be producing 260 million tonnes of waste annually needing over 1,400 sq km of landfills which is an area equal to Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai put together, CSE said referring to the paper. 
 
According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) estimates, over 90 per cent of Indian cities with a functional collection system dispose of their waste in landfills, CSE said.

These are the cleanest Indian cities, according to CSE

<keyword id="1697348" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Adani-Ports-and-Special-Economic-Zone">Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone</keyword> (AP<keyword id="45393" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="SEZ">SEZ</keyword>), part of the Ahmedabad-based <keyword id="76451" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Adani">Adani</keyword> Group, has received environmental clearance and other nods from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for its 8,481 hectares SEZ at Mundra port in Gujarat. This would facilitate setting up of facilities like desalination and effluent treatment plants and also boost exports. 
 In January, the Gujarat High Court had ordered suspension of all commercial and development activities in the 12 manufacturing units situated at Mundra on a public interest litigation. It had also asked the <keyword id="68998" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="environment-ministry">Environment Ministry</keyword> to examine the issue again within 30 days, after taking into account the High Court’s observations as well as the Sunita Narain committee’s report that had highlighted violation of norms by the APSEZ. 
 
The court had said the APSEZ did not have valid environmental clearance and it did qualify for deemed environment clearance which the company had claimed. The units in the SEZ were ordered to shut down operations. 
 
However, the units moved the Supreme Court which granted them interim relief and allowed them to continue operations, but did not allow further expansion and construction. 
 
The ministry’s nod will now allow APSEZ to set up a mega desalination plant, an effluent treatment plant and intake of sea water. 
 
“The grant of environmental clearance to the Mundra SEZ by the Environment Ministry will encourage investment in the SEZ and development is expected to be at a much faster pace as it provides seamless connectivity through sea, rail and road,” said Gautam Adani, chairman, Adani Group.

Adani Ports Gets Nod For Gujarat SEZ

A good school for the children, a bungalow in an elegant part of the Indian capital, a job as a freelance writer, a maid, a driver, an inverter for the power cuts, and a water purifying system. These were some of the items Indian expat Jyoti Pande Lavakare ticked off on her list as “done” as she prepared to leave the piercing blue skies of Palo Alto in California to return to New Delhi in June 2009 with her husband Ajay, a technology start-up executive. The move proved smooth. Within months, the household had settled into a new rhythm. They were returning to spend time with their elderly parents and ensure their son, Madhav, and daughter, Naina, both in their early teens, had some “connection” with India, where both Jyoti and Ajay had grown up. They hoped to make them more resilient by teaching them to cope with power cuts, water shortages, and similar hardships. What Lavakare, now in her early 50s, hadn’t bargained for was the poisonous air. The city had a “hidden” secret: its air was fouler than Beijing’s but hardly anyone knew. With every passing winter, the air quality was plummeting. Jyoti Pande Lavakare. “In 2014, I realised something was making us all sick. At my children’s school, children were falling ill constantly. My friends’ children were falling ill. I had a bad asthma attack. When we met other expats, the talk was about what was wrong with the air,” says Lavakare. She thought she was being hypersensitive. Indian friends teased her for having become too “American”. But Lavakare began reading about and researching the air quality and soon became obsessive about the pollution. When the American embassy in Delhi, which had been collecting air quality data but keeping it private, released the figures to the public in 2015, the secret was out. Lavakare was right to be obsessed: New Delhi’s pollution was off the charts, registering 222 during US President Barack Obama’s visit in January 2015. Readings from 151 to 200 are considered unhealthy, and any above that very unhealthy, meaning “health warnings of emergency conditions”. The Indian capital’s residents were living in a gas chamber. In January 2015, Bloomberg quoted David Spiegelhalter, a University of Cambridge statistician, as saying that, by visiting the capital and breathing its air for just three days, Obama might have cut six hours from his expected lifespan. New York Times correspondent Gardiner Harris (a neighbour of Lavakare’s in Sunder Nagar) wrote a quietly impassioned article on how he was leaving New Delhi after his young son suffered a horrifying asthma attack. Breathing the air was the equivalent of smoking 44 cigarettes a day, according to the independent Berkeley Earth science research group. “At first I was in denial. Had I brought my children back to India to breathe pure poison and harm their lungs? But when the data started coming out … I knew we were in a crisis,” says Lavakare. She bought face masks and air <keyword id="2029750" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="purifiers">purifiers</keyword>, but that was only dealing with her own patch. Angry at the horror of the city’s 20 million residents breathing filthy air, she co-founded Care for Air in 2015 with other professionals, as a platform to build awareness that the city was in the midst of a “public health emergency” and to lobby for clean air. With her colourful silk saris and long wavy hair, pushed back by her glasses, Lavakare is now well-known as an expert on air pollution; she is invited to join television debates. She is unimpressed with the measures the New Delhi government has just announced to “minimise” (no one is talking of eliminating) the pollution this winter that turns the capital into a kind of “air gulag”, thick with tiny particles known as PM2.5 which damage not just respiratory systems, as many seem to think – but many other human organs too. The quality of October’s air plunged to “poor” even before Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights when the bursting of firecrackers makes the “normal” pollution many times worse. On some days in late October, the state-run Central Pollution Control Board’s air quality index stood at around 300 – six times the recommended level. The index has risen as high as 999 after Diwali for two consecutive years. This year, the government began putting tougher measures in place. Under its Graded Response Action Plan, drivers are allowed to use their cars every other day, depending on whether their number plates end in an odd or even number, to limit vehicle emissions; people found burning waste are fined; bus and metro services are increased; the use of diesel generators has been banned; and water sprinklers and mechanical sweepers will be used to deal with the construction dust and debris that is responsible for the bulk of the pollution. <h2 style="margin-top: 1.14286rem; margin-bottom: 0.428571rem; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 1.71429rem; line-height: 2.21429rem; font-family: Merriweather, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">At first I was in denial. Had I brought my children back to India to breathe pure poison and harm their lungs?Jyoti Pande Lavakare</h2> By getting the doctors on Care for Air’s board to appear on television to talk about its effects, visiting schools to educate children, and galvanising the media to cover the subject, the group has succeeded in raising public awareness and making people, even the poor, demand action. You can see the difference in the booming sales of air purifiers and face masks. “When people first began wearing masks a few years ago, people used to stare. It seemed odd. Or they’d cross the street, thinking the person was contagious. Now no one thinks twice about wearing a mask,” says Mukesh Nath, a chemist in Sarai Jullena. For Lavakare, the fight for the right to breathe clean air has become fused with her personal life. She’s not worrying about her children – Naina has gone to Barnard College in New York, where she is studying sociology, and Madhav, currently on a gap year, has been accepted by Yale University in Connecticut. It’s more that, while she was campaigning and lobbying against pollution, it sneaked into her family, devastating it. Jyoti Pande Lavakare (left), her late mother Kamale Pande and father Jagdish Chandra Pande. Photo: courtesy of Lavakare family She had returned to India to spend time with her parents. But over a year ago, her mother, Kamale Pande, a classical vocalist and non-smoker, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She had no family history of the disease and was otherwise in excellent health. Suddenly, all those abstract statistics were embodied in her own mother’s lungs. Specialists linked the disease directly to <keyword id="55910" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Air-Pollution">air pollution</keyword> and Lavakare has no doubt at all about the causal link. In her book Choked, published this year, Beth Gardiner wrote: “You see one person run over in the street and you’ll never forget it, but thousands dying from the effects of dirty air will never even faze you.” Lavakare’s mother died last year. Trying to process her grief is one reason Lavakare is working on her own book, called Breathing Here is Injurious to Your Health, to be published next year. It’s the story of her relationship with her dying city, with pollution, her mother’s suffering and on what can be done to spare Indians from pollution’s catastrophic impact. The fight for clean air is going to be prolonged. Misleading statistics have to be contested, for one. The Delhi government recently issued full-page advertisements to trumpet how air pollution had been cut by 25 per cent thanks to its efforts. <h2 style="margin-top: 1.14286rem; margin-bottom: 0.428571rem; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 1.71429rem; line-height: 2.21429rem; font-family: Merriweather, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Sometimes, I wish we hadn’t given up our green cardJyoti Pande Lavakare, who returned to India with her family from Palo Alto, California, in 2009</h2> “Experts agree that there is no data available – at least in the public domain – that clearly validates the claim. It doesn’t mean the government is lying, but unless independent data analysts and scientists can access the data, no one can say whether this is just another piece of fake news or a manipulation of cherry-picked statistics,” says Lavakare. Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi, says the coming weeks will see pollution getting worse. “There are 14 ‘hotspots’ – areas where pollution levels exceed the average because of the burning of municipal solid waste and industrial waste. To reduce the remaining 65 per cent of pollution, these sources need to be tackled,” she says. Lavakare wants action on a “war footing”. The city needs an empowered and accountable authority whose sole goal is to reduce pollution. She is convinced that neither New Delhi nor the country – last year, 11 of the world’s 15 most polluted cities were in India – can afford incremental progress. Anger inflects her voice, mostly when she talks of how little has been done. “Take 2018 – there was not a single ‘clean air’ day in the city. Take the government’s Clean India (Swachh Bharat) campaign. “How you can have a Clean India without clean air?” Or the government’s other pet scheme, Make in India. “How can you Make in India if you can’t breathe in India?” Lavakare asks. The figures are not just dispiriting, they are apocalyptic. A report by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago in 2016 said air pollution was reducing the life expectancy of the average New Delhi resident by about 10 years. She and Ajay discuss whether they should become “pollution refugees” by leaving the city for Goa, a coastal state in India’s southeast. Friends have already sold up and fled. Many have had nasty health scares. Some have opted for crazy commutes, such as between Delhi and Toronto or Delhi and London. “Sometimes, I wish we hadn’t given up our green card,” she says.

You Searched For "sunita narain" and got 10 results

Mukesh Ambani joins COP28 Advisory Committee

IANS

These are the 7 most influential Indians according to TIME

Poulomi Das

India saw extreme weather events almost every day in first 9 months this year: Report

PTI

A climate change-induced natural disaster has struck India every day of 2022 so far, new CSE report shows

Ankush Banerjee

Delhi air quality which is very poor is likely to shop further this weekend

PTI

Dabur, Patanjali, and Emami decry a study that found what you buy is not all honey

Navdeep Yadav

These are the cleanest Indian cities, according to CSE

BI India Bureau

Adani Ports Gets Nod For Gujarat SEZ

BI India Bureau

New Delhi’s toxic air and how one expat family was affected – sick children, asthma, a death, and a campaign to awaken city to pollution threat

SCMP

Lok Sabha Election 2019 Second Phase - 95 Constituency Candidate List from Key Parties

BI India Bureau

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides