We must raise our voices for such dedicated forest officers...

The Maharashtra government is on the verge of declaring a 100% state-wide drought by the end of September 2026, triggered by an unprecedented dry spell that has severely damaged key crops like soybean, cotton, and sugarcane. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that the state will provide immediate financial assistance and relief packages directly into farmers' bank accounts without waiting for funds from the Central Government. @Dev_Fadnavis @CMOMaharashtra @ndmaindia @UNDRR_AsiaPac @UNDRR @WaterInitiativ1 @Youth4WaterIn

Because my wife has her salary account with @TheOfficialSBI, about a year ago some local SBI officials almost fell over themselves trying to persuade her to take a credit card. She kept resisting, but eventually agreed on one condition: she would decide whether to activate it after receiving the card. We were specifically told that there would be no fee if the card was not activated, and that there would be no charges during the first year in any case. The card arrived. She never opened it. It remained sealed in the original envelope for almost a year. Then, one evening few days ago, she suddenly received a message saying that ₹3,538 would be auto-debited from her account the next day. She immediately contacted the official who had persuaded her to take the card. The official was equally surprised and even visited our home to see for herself that the card was still sealed in its original envelope. My wife had never activated or used the card. The official helped her connect with SBI's online helpline, where she was assured that the amount would be reversed within a few days. The next day ₹3,538 was deducted from her account. Today, five days after, however, my wife received a message saying that her request for annual fee reversal of ₹2,999 had been approved. So what happened to the remaining ₹539 that was deducted? Even the SBI official who helped us has no explanation for this deduction. What kind of “dadagiri” is this, @SBICard_Connect? First, you charge a customer for a card that was never activated or used. Then, when the customer complains, you reverse only a part of the amount deducted -without explaining the balance. This is simply not acceptable. @TheOfficialSBI @SBICard_Connect, please take cognisance of this matter immediately, explain the ₹539 deduction, and ensure that the entire amount deducted is refunded. A bank cannot build customer trust by making customers fight to get back money they should never have been charged in the first place. @FinMinIndia @RBI @jaagograhakjago @jagograhakjago

आजा मेरी गाड़ी में बैठ जा, आजा मेरी गाड़ी में बैठ जा लॉन्ग ड्राइव जाएंगे, फुल स्पीड जाएंगे, कहीं रुकेंगे ना हम गाना-बजाना, खाना-पीना, गाड़ी में होगा दोस्त आजा मेरी गाड़ी में बैठ जा, ओह आजा मेरी गाड़ी में बैठ जा... Good morning from Agra 🙏🏽❤️ (Pic: Rohit)

Hurry, folks! The last date for application to be part of the Jal-Jalvayu Yuva Samvad Odisha 2026 is 30th September. You can register by using the QR Code in the poster or by clicking the link here: forms.gle/aN1GMyaRLzDh7FNt6 Best wishes, Team #Youth4WaterIndia

Good noon from Agra, folks! Speaking and exploring here on Renewable Energy trends of India at the Earth Journalism Network's #RE workshop for Communicators and Content Creators. One thing that struck me is the number of green jobs that are expected to be created in India due to all the wonderful and ever expanding RE initiatives. A study by @CEEWIndia projects that India's clean energy targets can generate over 44 lakh full-time equivalent jobs by 2030. However, only less than 13 lakh of those roles will be generated specifically in long-term operations, maintenance, and manufacturing over the lifetime of the projects. This needs serious reflection. Just Transition should also bring more secured jobs. #JustTransition #RenewableEnergy #GreenJobs #SecuredJobs #EarthJournalismNetwork #WaterInitiatives #CombatClimateChangeNetworkIndia #MahanadiRiverWaterkeeper #Youth4WaterIndia

Hello @otvnews, name the hotel plz! I have said it before, Puri hotels are behaving like an organised mafia. There's absolutely no regulation. They must be brought to the books! @dm_puri @SPPuri1

Rest in power, Mushtaq Bhai...🙏🏽✨️

Local food is not just food. It is identity. One of the most beautiful ways of celebrating India’s diversity is to celebrate what people eat - and how they eat it. These photographs made me smile. The little wall painting is wonderfully cheeky: “Dhoklas before Chhokras” and “Pushpa, I hate Burger, Inhe hatao, koi Dosa le ke ao!” 😄 It is humour, but there is also a serious message hidden in it: local food deserves to be celebrated on its own terms, rather than being pushed aside by a standardised global food culture. Food carries the taste of a place, its history, agriculture, climate, traditions and memories. From a humble earthen bowl of a local snack to a creatively presented traditional dish, every such experiment can make local food more attractive to younger generations and visitors. And there is an even bigger opportunity here. New and imaginative ways of marketing local food can generate local incomes, support farmers and small food businesses, create livelihoods for women and youth, and keep culinary traditions alive. India doesn't need every place to have the same cafés, burgers and pizzas. We can have modern cafés that proudly serve dosa, dhokla, litti, pakhala, chhena poda, momos, poha, idli, bamboo shoots and thousands of other local delicacies - each telling its own story. The more we celebrate the food of a place, the more we celebrate the place itself. And perhaps, as the wall says, sometimes it is perfectly okay to choose dhoklas before chhokras! 😄 Good evening from Agra! ~ Ranjan Panda 24th September, 2026 #LocalFood #FoodIdentity #VocalForLocal #LocalEconomy #IndiaDiversity #CulinaryHeritage #SustainableLocalEconomy #RanjanPanda

A corrupt Election Commission, a compromised judiciary, and a pet puppy media: three of the most dangerous things that can happen to any Democracy! Bravo #RitikaChopra

Sadly SC just flags and flies...

All that we want to see in a Viksit Bharat by 2047 is already available in most airports today. Unfortunately, so is the loot. Take my current experience at the tiny Jharsuguda Airport. The only snack bar available after security offers a black coffee for ₹200. A medium-sized coffee, served in a similar paper cup, would cost around ₹20 at a local hotel just outside the airport. Let us assume that we pay 10 times more for the kind of infrastructure and convenience that airports provide. Fine. But who monitors the small-scale, everyday loot that happens inside these supposedly modern spaces? This shop charged me ₹200 for a coffee whose billed price was ₹199.50. When I questioned the extra 50 paise, the salesperson initially told me it was tax. I pointed out that the ₹199.50 already included the applicable taxes and that the extra 50 paise was simply being rounded up. His next response was that he could not return the 50 paise because the payment had already been made. When I asked him to say that on camera, he suddenly found a way out. He returned ₹200 to me in cash, after which I made another card payment of the actual billed amount - ₹199.50. Caught red-handed, the explanation changed again: it was the billing system, he said, and he had no control over the technology. I asked him to convey my feedback to whoever had designed such a system. His response was revealing: “Nobody has ever complained. It is only 50 paise.” Exactly. It is “only” 50 paise. But how many customers have been charged those 50 paise without noticing or bothering to complain? How much could such seemingly insignificant round-offs have accumulated over months or years? The next customer received a similar bill. He noticed it but chose not to complain. And perhaps that is the bigger problem. Airport authorities may spend crores creating impressive infrastructure, but what is the meaning of Viksit Bharat if we cannot ensure basic accountability even at a small shop operating within that infrastructure? Development is not merely about airports, highways, bridges and smart buildings. It is also about fairness, transparency, accountability and civic courage. If citizens remain silent when they are openly overcharged - even by 50 paise - and authorities don't bother to monitor such practices, we should not be surprised when small acts of everyday dishonesty become normalised. In fact, we already have normalised millions of such mundane thuggery. Haven't we? We cannot be passive citizens, open to being looted by whoever finds an opportunity, and still call ourselves a Viksit Bharat. A developed country needs not just developed infrastructure, but developed institutions, developed systems and, equally importantly, developed civic behaviour. ~ Ranjan Panda 22nd September, 2026 #jharsuguda #airport #food #AAI #ViksitBharat @AAI_Official @jagograhakjago @jharsugudalive @aaijrgairport

Development... Sambalpur-Jharsuguda road!

If you give too much importance to a donkey, he starts thinking that he is a lion...😄😄😄 facebook.com/share/r/1Egv4tx…

Sadly, this is a very common sight. My own nephew faced a similar situation a few months ago. Just the other day, while returning from another city, we had to stop about 100 metres away from a bull fight on a street in Sambalpur. We needed to reach home urgently for some reason, but passing through a scene like that would have been far more dangerous. So, we had no choice but to stop and wait until it was safe to proceed. @nitin_gadkari @HUDDeptOdisha @bmcbbsr @SMC_Sambalpur @odisha_police

Hello @makemytrip both my latest bookings have made me realise that you are resorting to fraudulent practices that was not to be seen before. 1st: In a hotel booking, your App offered an insurance at 89 rupees per person but while checking out for final payment you charged approx 275 rupees per person. I raised a complaint but your customer care team offered me a full refund of the amount charged. It did not address this fraudulent way of charging the higher price while the offer was way too less. 2nd: In another hotel booking, as per offer provided by MMT App, I had paid the complete amount for the booking and my voucher had no mention of any additional payment that was needed. However, the hotel did not let me check in with that voucher saying it was an incomplete voucher and asked for more payments. The reason given by the man at reception of the hotel and that was given by MMT representative, whom I had called then and there, did not match. Finally, I was forced to pay extra amount to check in. This I had never expected from MMT. Now, you guys have been asking the feedback on the 2nd booking over WhatsApp again and again, and I have been repeating the same words as above but it seems you won't register the feedback until I give a good feedback. @makemytripcare @MakeMyTripIndia @jagograhakjago @consaff

The concept of life and death seems to apply to God’s idols as well. When installed in pandals, they are given the “blessing of life” (jeevan sthapan) by people who are supposedly created by these very Gods. And when the Puja is over, the same people take away that life and immerse or discard the idols - because, after all, they are merely idols. Isn’t that also how humans often treat fellow human beings? We make people feel important as long as they are useful to us, and once their usefulness is over, we simply discard them. So, really, what is surprising about it?

Today's #climategyan in one image! #53 More than a third of the world’s river basins ran drier than normal in 2025!! What happens when the world’s rivers begin behaving differently? The WMO’s latest findings offer a worrying glimpse. In 2025, 36% of the world’s river-basin areas experienced below- or well-below-normal river flows, with large parts of North and South America, Europe, Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East affected. At the same time, 21% of river-basin areas experienced above- or much-above-normal flows. In other words, the problem is not simply that the world is becoming drier - it is that the water cycle is becoming increasingly erratic and less predictable. The picture becomes even more concerning when we look beyond rivers: global terrestrial water storage was 42% below normal, while all 19 major glacial regions lost ice for the fourth consecutive year. These changes are not confined to the environment. Rivers and water storage underpin agriculture, energy generation, transport, industry and drinking-water supplies. When the water cycle becomes unstable, the foundations of our economies and communities become unstable too. Climate change is not only changing the weather; it is increasingly reshaping the way water moves, stays and disappears across the planet. ~ Ranjan Panda 19 September 2026 #ClimateGyan #ClimateChange #Water #WaterCrisis #ClimateResilience #WMO #RanjanPanda #riverflow #Youth4WaterIndia #WaterInitiatives #MahanadiRiverWaterkeeper

The Himalaya is sending us a warning we can't afford to ignore. Plz read my latest opinion piece in the @bigwireindia Thanks! #himalayas #HimalayaDisasters #watertower #NepalFlood @WaterInitiativ1 @Youth4WaterIn @MahanadiRiver @Waterkeeper @WMO @icimod @UNEP bigwire.in/2026/09/17/the-hi…

As can be made out from some recent analysis, gor the first time in over 50 years, India halted growth in its coal-fired power generation over a two-year period due to a massive surge in clean energy production. This analysis revealed that between the first half of 2024 and the first half of 2026, India's overall electricity demand grew by 7% (about 63 terawatt-hours). Remarkably, 100% of this new demand was met entirely by non-fossil fuel sources (solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear power), flattening emissions in the power sector. #RenewableEnergy