Stories written by Keya Acharya
A journalist with over 20 years of experience in in-depth writing and researching environment and development issues in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. Keya has travelled widely, covering assignments in various areas of the world. Her research has included climate change, urban solid waste management, rural alternative energy systems, implementation of laws on industrial hazardous wastes, human rights, ecotourism, wildlife issues, transgenic cotton, corruption and environment, population and gender, e-governance, agribiotech and forests and encroachments, among other topics.
Keya is vice chair of the Forum of Environmental Journalists of India, and has organised several media-training workshops, convened international media meetings and undertaken media study tours.
Keya has won several research and media fellowships and is the recipient of the Press Institute’s award for Excellence in Human Development Reporting; the Prem Bhatia Award for Environmental Reporting, and the Green Globe Foundation award for Outstanding Media Contribution by a Media Individual.
Keya has also conducted development journalism studies as visiting faculty, chaired media and international conference panels, and edited ‘The Green Pen’, an anthology of essays on environmental journalism, the first of its kind in South Asia, featuring the region's most prominent and respected environmental journalists.
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As public health groups await the outcome of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG’s legal challenge to India’s patent law, a campaign is building up against a parallel move to obtain 'data exclusivity' on clinical trial data submitted to government for marketing approval.
A public outcry has followed the challenge offered by Novartis AG in the Madras High Court to the Indian Patents Act as violating international trade laws and restricting the Swiss pharmaceutical giant's trade.
A public outcry has followed the challenge offered by Novartis AG in the Madras High Court to the Indian Patents Act as violating international trade laws and restricting the Swiss pharmaceutical giant's trade.
When a pack of stray dogs tore to pieces the eight-year-old daughter of a construction worker, it showed up the social inequalities and other paradoxes of this global information technology hub.
When a pack of stray dogs tore to pieces the eight-year-old daughter of a construction worker, it showed up the social inequalities and other paradoxes of this global information technology (IT) hub.
India is leading developing nations in carbon credits, expecting over 2.27 billion US dollars by selling certified emissions reduction units (CER) from approximately 300 Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, according to the country's ministry of environment and forests.
''Earlier, there were no 'outside' fertilisers or seeds. There were no (plant) diseases and we were happy", recalls 83-year-old Chandrappa, farming for the last 60 years on his family's five acres in the black cotton-soil heartland of this southern Indian State. But today, half a century of farming later, Chandrappa will have nothing to do with his own seeds.
''Earlier, there were no 'outside' fertilisers or seeds. There were no (plant) diseases and we were happy", recalls 83-year-old Chandrappa, farming for the last 60 years on his family's five acres in the black cotton-soil heartland of this southern Indian State.
When authorities demolished properties belonging to Fateh Singh Rathore, on the periphery of this famed tiger sanctuary, this month, it looked as though the government was ready to tackle encroachments on India's protected forest lands that threaten wildlife populations.
Rehabilitation work in India's remote Andaman islands, close to the epicenter of the undersea quake which triggered the devastating Dec.26, 2004 tsunami is both unsustainable and ecologically harmful, say experts.
Legitimising encroachments into forest lands before the elections is a cheap way to win votes, but one that could prove costly for India's rapidly dwindling green cover, as well the country's tribal communities.
As the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq rages into a third week, India's scientific elite, located in this global science and technology hub, is leading efforts to pull a wide cross-section of society into a growing, nationwide movement against the conflict.
India's southern state of Karnataka is known more for its capital city and global information technology hub, Bangalore, than for its 1.5 million children who are not in schools.
India's 10 million tribals living in areas termed 'forest lands' are living in uncertainty, following a directive by the environment ministry to state governments to evict all ''encroachers''.
Sitting on handwoven reed mats inside a mud hut still cool in the summer heat, 25-year-old Laknoo Biddika admits to never having heard of The Hague or big-sounding words like 'biodiversity'. But he does not underrate what he has to offer the world.
An intense sea of village women listen quietly to speakers from the city seated on a podium. "You are woman power, you are India," thunders a high court judge.
An intense sea of village women listen quietly to speakers from the city seated on a podium. "You are woman power, you are India," thunders a high court judge.
Law students and Indian judges are being trained to be more sensitive to human rights issues in India, which, although the world's largest democracy, has a dismal record of rights protection.
Law students and Indian judges are being trained to be more sensitive to human rights issues in India, which, although the world's largest democracy, has a dismal record of rights protection.
Sixteen-year-old Mohanna says he made under 10 rupees (one quarter US dollar) a day cleaning motorbikes in city parking lots and begging a tip from the owners.
Sixteen-year-old Mohanna says he made under 10 rupees (one quarter US dollar) a day cleaning motorbikes in city parking lots and begging a tip from the owners.