India’s maritime domain holds immense potential for driving sustainable economic growth, technological innovation, and community resilience. However, challenges such as limited infrastructure, environmental degradation, and a skills gap threaten to hamper this progress. This article explores how education, institutional reform, and technological foresight are reshaping India’s maritime aspirations. From blue accounting and marine biotechnology to shipbuilding and AI-enabled ports, the article unpacks strategic imperatives for India’s blue economy. The insights offered emphasize the need for sustainable practices, inclusive capacity building, and a shift in national consciousness about the ocean's central role in development.

The Himalayan region, often termed the "Third Pole," is facing an unprecedented glacial crisis. Glaciers that have endured for millennia are now retreating at alarming rates, driven by accelerated climate change. These transformations threaten water security, increase the frequency of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), and introduce emerging risks such as permafrost thawing. Based on extensive field research and national monitoring efforts, this article explores India’s glacial decline, challenges in glaciological research, and overlooked disasters such as the Gohna Lake breach in the Alaknanda valley. It argues for urgent policy, educational, and technological interventions to understand and respond to this unfolding cryospheric emergency.

The Indian Himalayan region, a geologically dynamic and ecologically sensitive landscape, is currently undergoing a transformation marked by the intersection of tectonic strain, accelerated climate change, and increasing anthropogenic pressures. The frequency and magnitude of natural disasters, including earthquakes, landslides, glacial lake outburst floods, glaciers/snow avalanches, flash floods, and forest fires, underscore the multidimensional vulnerabilities of this fragile ecosystem. This article, based on an in-depth interview with Prof. Kalachand Sain, former Director of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG)-DST, explores the geophysical mechanisms underpinning the region’s seismicity, the climatic anomalies accelerating its environmental degradation, and the infrastructural and population-related stressors that are contributing to a mounting crisis. Through a synthesis of field-based geoscientific observations and a policy-relevant framework, the article offers a comprehensive perspective on the risks facing the Indian Himalayas and underscores the urgent need for integrated, science-led interventions.

Migration constitutes one of the most transformative forces in India’s demographic and political landscape. Internal labor mobility, particularly the movement of unskilled and semi-skilled workers across state borders, has long been central to the country’s economic growth but remains insufficiently acknowledged in governance and electoral processes. The Election Commission’s recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls highlights the paradox of migrants’ democratic invisibility: while these workers sustain urban economies, they often remain disenfranchised, maintaining voter identity in villages of origin but lacking representation in cities of destination. This article examines historical shifts in migration streams from pre-colonial localized economies to colonial plantation and industrial systems, and further into contemporary urban-industrial hubs. The analysis also highlights the intersections of migration with language politics, fertility and family structures, and caste-class dynamics. The COVID-19 pandemic and the delay of the 2021 Census underscored the acute data gaps that undermine policy-making on migrants, leaving one of India’s most critical populations undercounted and underrepresented. By weaving together historical perspectives, contemporary challenges, and policy implications, the article argues for reimagining migration not as a temporary livelihood strategy but as an essential dimension of India’s democratic and developmental framework.

Cloud seeding, a weather modification technique, involves dispersing substances such as silver iodide or salts into clouds to stimulate precipitation. Globally, it has been deployed to combat droughts and enhance snowfall, with countries such as the United States, China, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia experimenting with diverse applications ranging from rainfall augmentation to marine cloud brightening. In India, its use has attracted attention both for addressing water scarcity and as a proposed intervention against Delhi’s severe winter pollution. It was found from the controlled experiments during CAIPEEX in Solapur that rainfall can be enhanced by up to ≅ 46±13 per cent at some locations, as indicated by the Automatic Rain Gauges, and on average, and ≅ 18±2.6 per cent in a 100 square kilometres (km2) area downwind of the seeding location. This highlights its promise for drought-prone regions. Yet experts caution that Delhi’s dry winter atmosphere makes cloud seeding scientifically unfeasible for pollution control, and while concerns exist about the ecological risks of dispersing substances like silver iodide, no conclusive evidence of widespread harm due to cloud seeding has been documented. This article examines the science, applications, and limitations of cloud seeding, arguing that while it may play a role in water resource management, it cannot serve as a sustainable solution to urban air pollution. Those topics warrant more research into applications.

The dialogue explores critical issues of sustainability through the lens of Earth system science, hazards in the Himalayas, coastal vulnerabilities, and the broader interaction between science and society. It highlights the urgent need for improved knowledge of the Himalayan ecosystem as an interconnected system involving geology, hydrology, cryosphere, atmosphere, and biology. Concerns about inadequate preparedness for earthquakes, landslides, and floods are examined alongside the socio-economic pressures that drive hazardous construction in vulnerable zones. The article also interrogates the idea of sustainability at global, social, and individual levels, emphasizing responsible consumption, governance, and public awareness. Further, it addresses challenges along India’s coastline, including erosion and sea level rise, and discusses the effectiveness of existing early warning systems. Finally, it presents an optimistic perspective on human adaptability to environmental change, grounded in historical resilience and technological advancement.

The Deep Ocean Mission (DOM), approved by the Government of India in 2021 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), represents a strategic step in realizing Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14: Life Below Water)1 and advancing the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047. In this episode of GnY Live, we participate in a discussion with Dr. M. Ravichandra, Secretary to the Government of India for the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The conversation presents insights highlighting the overarching framework, technological advancements, and policy implications of the Deep Ocean Mission. Structured around its six thematic components, the discussion foregrounds India’s indigenously developed submersible (Matsya 6000), ocean climate services, biodiversity mapping and non-living exploration, water and energy from the ocean, and marine biotechnology initiatives. It provides analytical clarity on the mission’s role in augmenting the Blue Economy, addressing environmental risks, and situating India within the global deep-ocean research landscape. The discussion concludes by noting the Deep Ocean Mission’s contribution to sustainable marine resource utilization and its alignment with national developmental priorities.