Sustainable development is achieved by satisfying the current ends without shrinking the existing means which can serve as needs for the society in the future. It has become global motive and responsibility of present community to utilize resources in an optimum way with minimum environmental damage. The objective of this paper is to study theoretical framework and practical approaches on sustainable offering practices through customer engagement. The study has also examined the opportunities and challenges of sustainable offering practices in India. The study is based on a previous study and secondary data has been used for analysis. The outcome revealed the process for successful sustainable offering practices in context of Indian consumers. The analysis has helped to understand different practices of sustainable offering through engaging stakeholders.

The Sundarbans or the ‘beautiful forest’ is a cluster of low-lying islands in the Bay of Bengal, considered as one of the natural wonders of the world, which is facing the problem of global warming since the past few decades. Global warming, climate change, increasing water level and salinity of the river as well as inlet areas are some recognized threats to the Sundarbans. This is threatening species survival, the health of natural systems and causing extinction of biodiversity. This study is a modest attempt to examine the factors because of which the burning issues of Sundarbans are almost excluded from the attention of the media in India as well as Bangladesh. This is despite the fact that various initiatives have been taken by the governments and at the private level in these two countries to conserve the Sundarbans ecosystem. The research paper summarizes findings of newspaper reports on Sundarbans, from Earth Day to World Environment Day 2017 (22 April to 5 June) of two reputed broadsheets dailies i.e. The Daily Prothom Alo (Dhaka, Bangladesh) and The Ei Samay Sangbadpatra (Kolkata, India). The youngest member of the mass communication family, the film has also been included in this paper. This is because the joint production of the two Bengali film industries has already made a lot of cinema. There is going to be more in the near future, where many issues of India and Bangladesh are getting priority, but the destruction of Sundarbans has never been the subject of any such media intervention.

Instead of looking at slums as strictly ‘urban problems’ requiring ‘urban solutions’, this paper attempts to build a structural link between growth of slums in urban areas and, what can be called, the ‘decay’ of the rural in India. It contends that uneven development of Indian cities with great spatial disparities – made evident by increasing number of slums – is related to uneven development between rural and urban areas. Thus, in order to grapple with the ‘enigma’ of slums, the political economy of rural areas – from where the migrants living in slums ‘originally’ belong – becomes the essential site to engage with. The paper foregrounds the need to study transformations in the rural domain in order to make sense of the growth of slums in cities. In a nutshell, the argument is that the ‘decay’ of the rural and the ‘swelling’ of the city are to be visualised in hyphenated terms since the rural-urban divide is at the heart of the ‘great urban divide’.

This article is a reflection of cultural differences recorded by the author during her research visit to Sweden in the year 2017 (February-March month). The objectives of the research visit included understanding official dialects of both countries, existing education system and work environments, variant food habits, family structure and associations, available transport systems, sustainable living options and cultural exchange within India and Sweden. The information was first collected through existing literature and was supported by information collected through observation method, informal discussions and interactions with the Swedish people. It can be concluded that both countries are culturally very different and different parts of each country further exhibit alteration in cultural practices, languages and food preferences. Some variations are also due to population size in both countries. For instance, transportation is very well developed in developed countries due to the availability of advanced technology and less population.

Delhi, capital of the world’s largest democracy, is witnessing large-scale increase in population since the beginning of the twentieth century. Two prominent factors that have contributed to this include the shifting of capital of the British Raj from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Delhi in 1911 and the partition of India that accompanied its independence in 1947. Delhi continued to witness high rate of migration in post-independent India due to uneven implementation of development policies. Rising population led to spatial expansion and the largest connotation of Delhi today (National Capital Region) is an area 36 times its size in 1947. Rising population has also had an adverse impact on Delhi’s natural resources. Consequently, clean air, water and land availability have become limited and Delhi today is undergoing a severe sustainability crisis. The latter requires urgent intervention for restoring Delhi’s urban ecosystem. Since urban areas are highly contested ecological spaces, urban ecological interventions are incomplete without political overtones. Thus, the success of urban ecological interventions lies in identifying politically correct boundaries which encompasses true ‘urban Delhi’ despite the political boundaries. This research contribution attempts to identify the geographical expanse of ‘urban Delhi’ amidst the various political terminologies that define Delhi. An understanding of various divisions and definitions of Delhi is also presented from the perspective of appreciating the challenges in urban planning. We conclude that urban ecology investigations in Delhi should be embedded within the ‘Delhi conurbation’, which represents a geographical area greater than the Delhi city-state but much smaller than Delhi NCR.

India is home to a multitude of art forms. The rich cultural diversity of India lies at the very root of its existence. However, many of these art forms have either completely vanished into the unknown or are on the verge of extinction. This paper provides a brief account of one such art forms called, Aipan, a Kumaoni folk art practised in the North Indian state of Uttarakhand. This is discussed in the backdrop of ‘Project Aipan’, initiated by the Enactus team of Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi. Consisting of rhythmic geometrical patterns made of lines and dots, Aipan is traditionally made on Geru (an earthy-red surface) with white rice paste. It is practiced on special ceremonies and household rituals to evoke divine blessings. Project Aipan worked towards strengthening communities, bound by a common thread of hope fostered by collective entrepreneurial actions. Through this paper, an attempt is made to highlight the struggle to keep alive the Aipan art form and sustaining it for posterity. The role of women in this struggle is also highlighted, be it the Kumaoni women who have been the practitioners of this art form, or the women team of Enactus IPCW who took the charge of protecting this heritage.

This research contribution attempts to study the role that agro-based industry as well as multi-farming in improving the agricultural sector in Manipur, India. Till now, farmers in the remote North-eastern state of Manipur have been using traditional methods of farming. However, with increasing population and due to lack of awareness towards efficient utilization of land resource, farmers in the state are struggling to keep this sector sustainable. It is thus the need of the hour to make farming economically viable in Manipur so that the food supply in the region is not adversely affected. Manipur also produces several local and nutritious crops like black rice or chakhao, the commercial production of which could help turn around the farming sector in Manipur towards prosperity. The properties of the black rice and how its well-planned production can augment and improve the income of the state is discussed. Presence of rich nutrients and the medicinal properties of chakhao make it a good crop for the health-conscious citizens. However, there is need for generating awareness about this crop and a simultaneous requirement of incentives for the farmers who are growing black rice, before it can become a useful cash crop for Manipur.