Defence of science

"...Distinguished scientists, this session of the Science Congress is taking place at a time when our national security, as also global security, are facing extraordinary challenges from terrorism. The horrendous incidents of September 11 in the United States and the outrageous terrorist attacks on the Jammu and Kashmir legislature on October 1 and Parliament on December 13 are barbaric manifestations of the same challenge.

From the blurbs

Growth and Human Development in the Northeast edited by Purusottam Nayak, OUP, Rs 750 The Northeasts paradox is that it is a region with a high human development index and poor economic growth. This multi-disciplinary study compares the regions human development record with the countrys other states. They emphasize that the mismatch between the development index and economic growth is at the root of social tensions in the northeast.

'We improve life through natural resources'

On your inspiration I studied engineering, but was convinced I was not meant for it. During my stint with Ford Foundation, I worked with a doctor couple from Johns Hopkins University, USA. They were training rural women in Maharashtra as community health workers. I realized that is exactly what I wanted to do. On PRADAN I conceived of the organization, but Vijay Mahajan, the co-founder of PRADAN, was instrumental in giving it shape. PRADAN works in seven states,

Bound and gagged

Forget Maoists, West Bengal's Left Front has lost its social constituency through years of inaction The situation in Lalgarh in West Bengal's Midnapore district, still precariously poised, seems to have been overtaken by generous helpings of farce in nearby Kolkata and distant Delhi. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram kept urging West Bengal to ban Red ultras even as he

From the blurbs

Good Women Do Not Inherit Land, Politics of Land and Gender in India by Nitya Rao, Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad, Rs 795 This book takes us to the lives and anxieties of Santhal women in two villages of Dumka district, Jharkhand. The life histories span different social patterns but all of them relate to rights in landed property, and their own troubled identities in the backdrop of harsh living conditions. Development Communication in Practice: India and the Millenium Development Goals by J V Vilanilam, Sage, Delhi, Rs 450

Four murders and a power plant

Land purchase deals amid gunshots in Jharkhand village

Builder of bridges across troubled waters

Smitu will continue to be with us through his works. With fertile imagination, relentlessly learning to weave together the personal, the political and the social, he inspired students, activists and professionals. He loved music, read and wrote to persuade people to see beyond the confines of biographies, and resisted injustice, wherever possible. A million memories of a dear friend come to mind. Often he would point out that activism

Booms are not forever

The recession is a solution, not a problem

Who's encroaching?

Noida eyes the Yamuna floodplain About 1,000 migrants lost their livelihood when their huts and crops on the Yamuna floodplain near the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border were razed in December. The Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department carried out the operation on a 25-hectare (ha) patch of the floodplain at Nayabaans village in Noida so that it can transfer the land to Noida for development.

The many-straw revolution

Conflicts will increase in the next two decades but we have what it takes to keep going The next decade or two are going to be rough. Conflicts of all kinds will increase. These will be over water, land, technologies, energy sources, geopolitical power, religion and science. We will lurch from one economic crisis to the other, and struggle to contain the impacts of the havoc we have wrought on the earth's climate.