Handloom is haute

But the market is still too far for India's weavers

Historical burden

The north may renege again and again but the south must go on fuelling their growth scientists have rung the alarm bell again, this time in Copenhagen, predicting a climate change more severe than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's fourth assessment report. Still, who will bell the fat cat? Especially the one caterwauling about urgent action?

Following rules doesn't pay

Organizations that continued with embryonic stem cell research benefit

Three cheers for democracy

Important bills are better dropped than approved without parliamentary debate THE government failed to push through Rajya Sabha three critical bills that had been cleared by the lower house of Parliament recently. The upper house rejected government bills on land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation, and compensatory afforestation. These bills address natural resources--land and forest--as well as the rights of vulnerable people, mostly poor farmers, who end up paying the cost of the country's development with their means of subsistence.

Back to basics

Cooperation is the cornerstone of humanity, some have not forgotten this sometime in mid-2007, the world underwent a major demographic shift. For the first time, the earth's population was more urban than rural. The world had gone to town.

Inklings of politics in urban India

The traditional non-politics of Indian cities is confronted by rapid urbanization THERE are signs that urban India is discovering politics after a long interval. City after congested city is demanding funds for new, comfortable buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Municipal managers see a clear political advantage in pushing public transport, and no merkely pandering to the car lobby (see 'More bus rides' Down To Earth, February 16-28, 2009).

Reader's digest

Google is making more books available to more people. Is the blessing unqualified? ON February 20, newspapers in India carried an advertisement meant for writers, publishers and other holders of copyright on printed material. The ad, brought out by the search engine major Google, signalled an end to its long-drawn legal battle with the US publishing industry. Digital libraries can now access works within the copyright period.

Our little mushroom clouds

Toxic waste is a problem. Whose?

The right push

Locusts have a chemical rush that changes their behaviour, a lot of us also need a tickle according to the Old Testament, Egypt's eighth plague was brought about by locusts. The swarm consumed all crops. Only areas inhabited by the Israelites were spared. The prophet Moses saw the hand of god in the insect attacks.

One person's weed, another's medicinal plant

Utility, too, lies in the eyes of the beholder THERE is a sweet irony in farm labourers earning from harvest and sale of weeds--as medicinal plants to Ayurved practioners. It is not every day that labourers, often landless and among the most vulnerable of India's poor, offer to weed a farmer's field for free or lower their wage rate (See Weeds of fortune).