Urbane and stupid

Sitting in urban comforts and planning for a rural set-up can only spell doom for any activity on the development front, for the village is a …

Wealth engenders debt...

... seems like a paradox, but when that wealth is produced by affluent countries through importing undervalued resources of the poorer regions,…

After the last tree is felled

'Sustainable development' cannot afford to be another epithet in the lexicon of development, but should dispel myths about human-made and natural …

The silver spoon

Development in the small-farm sector holds the key to a holistic progress in the Asia-Pacific countries

Good but not true

The United Nations does not take into account sustainability of the environment in assessing progress using the Human Development Index, …

Turning to God

Godfrey Baseley, the man behind "The Archers", BBC's popular serial on agricultural information, is dead. His 'gossip' was valuable advice to the …

An alternative perspective

While small irrigation projects are the need of the hour, the government is obsessed with big projects

Order, Order

Powerful words that provided the base for judicial activism in India. How potent are the judgments delivered in favour of the environment? Will …

W(h)ither Indian science?

High-profile science need not be the cornerstone of Indian science policy. What is required is to give more thrust to existing methodologies and …

Africa awake

The new US foreign policy on environment, if well implemented, should shake African nations out of a long stupor into tackling massive eco-…

A beaten path

Suresh Prabhu is by no means breaking new ground. He is merely mouthing the same promise made time and again, but never fulfilled, by his predecessors

Who US, what sanctions?

By conducting nuclear tests, India was only asserting its sovereignty. Now, if it gives in to US pressure tactics, it will tantamount to begging …

Eternal quest

Fascination and challenges of the search for extra-terrestrial life

Warped science

Aping Western trends in science has given Indian research priorities a skewed perspective

Exit, green fences

Hedgerows, reservoirs of biodiversity, quietly fade into extinction in Kerala

Looking forward to the past

Portrait of a village indifferent to the urge to move with the times

Surviving on wood

Collecting fuelwood provides a basis for survival for the poor around Dharwar

Thais dig deep into wallets for songbirds

Doves can cost a fortune in Thailand, where the people pay heavily to domesticate the bird.

The invisible mountain

Hanuman: man, monkey or langur?

The Hindu monkey god Hanuman comes across as a mosaic of different beings

A tryst winth death

The land of the Brahmaputra recurrently reels under terrible onslaughts of a scourge

Limp target

Polio eradication targets strike a wrong note, while the WHO waxes eloquent

Inviting the plague

With all its wealth and affluence, Surat remains the least concerned about health and hygiene

'Development' vultures

"Spring's fragrant gardens wither away where the mediocre rules" -- Rabindranath Tagore

Kerosene slips through greasy palms

Authorities tread on slippery ground trying to resolve the fuel crisis in Mysore