Last fortnight, the National Knowledge Commission (nkc) in association with the Centre for Science and Environment (cse), launched a one-stop shop for all that is green and concerns environment and development issues. "If this is the age of environment, then information will be the key to change - in our lifestyle, in policy and in practice," said nkc chairperson Sam Pitroda while launching http://indiaenvironment-portal.org.in. "Our politics is overt: to build open, networked and informed societies, who can use knowledge to make change. This is why we have also built the India Environment Portal on an open-source platform and made proprietary information held by us available and open", added cse director Sunita Narain. The portal sources government documents and makes them available for public scrutiny. It also provides links to government institutions and is planning to add names of researchers and institutions, working in the field environment. Initially, more than 3,00,000 articles and documents have been made available for the researchers, culled from different sources, categorised by the author and tagged according to subjects and locations. The portal also has in-depth sections on various subjects which provide latest news and perspective and links to the key government and other institutions, ngos and individual experts. The portal hosts virtual 'how to do' manuals on subjects ranging from organic farming and vermiculture to solar energy, wastewater recycling and rainwater harvesting. The content of the portal is currently in English but plans are underway to make it available in other languages as well.