Each time I visit India, I see just how much the country is moving forwards. New roads, and especially dual carriageways, are helping to ease urban congestion and link larger cities in this vast country. Pipes are being laid to close off open sewers and to take clean water to houses. This move to piped water should ease the vast number of plastic water bottles that are currently used and discarded. 

There is a real push to tackle this massive problem of litter. Recycling centres are springing up and people are being encouraged to collect plastic waste in sacks, which they do willingly, but there is still such a long way to go. Where there was litter, there are now piles of filled sacks awaiting collection; but it is still a move in the right direction. It is very noticeable that  supermarkets and shops no longer offer plastic bags for shopping but have moved to paper bags, or the old favourite, yesterday’s newspapers. On a long train journey to the project, I saw a lady throw newspaper out of the window, the norm until very recently. She was severely reprimanded by a fellow passenger!

Air quality, although still dire in major cities, seems to be improving. More and more of the tuk tuks are now gas-fuelled or electric. All drivers must have their vehicles tested every 6 months for emissions. Government buses that churn out black exhaust smoke, seem to be exempt!

Life is changing, slowly, slowly for the increasing middle class, but for the poor very little has changed.