Hermann Bacher: The Swiss Jesuit who revolutionised watershed development in India

Hermann Bacher, who spent 60 of his 97 years in India, was deeply impacted by the Maharashtra drought of 1972; it led him to recalibrate his …

Swachh Bharat Mission: Water shortage drives people in Marathwada to open fields

Maharashtra’s rain-shadow region has had so little rain in the last four years that residents don’t have enough water to flush …

Impotent plan?

In August 2005, the Indian Parliament passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (nrega). The latest avatar of state-financed employment …

Real estate boom, quarries to blame for Pune disaster?

Ambegaon taluk where disaster-struck Malin village was located had become a realty hot spot and had mines; it is located in the ecologically …