Poll posturing

Down To Earth gauges the ground reality before assembly elections

Anaemia rampant in women in Bageshwar

Question on employment guarantee scheme's success

Impotent plan?

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

India's poorest people live in the richest areas Comments from the dialogue on mining organised by CSE

Arunachal's 'economic development' does not bode well for women

Bank at your doorstep

Technology is helping public sector banks find customers in rural India. This is part of the Centre’s efforts to include villages in the …

Logjam

Whenever the Supreme Court pulls the trigger, why does it miss the target? Because governments like those of the seven Northeast states work …

Theirs to mine?

This is the question angry and beleaguered tribals in Orissa and Jharkhand are asking, as mining companies set up shop in the midst of their land …

Made it

Enabavi, a village of 52 families, is abuzz. It is hosting farmers from the nearby Kallem village who have come here for tips on profitable …

Everybody's a Loser

The World Trade Organization's recent ministerial meet in Seattle, USA, will be remembered more for the protestors who turned the venue into a …

Phulmai's walk - a day in the life of a headloader

Headloaders - collectors of fuelwood in India's woodlands. On the one hand, seen as forest destroyers, on the other, they are the sole support of …

A watershed plan

Recurrent droughts and floods coupled with mass poverty, chronic unemployment and pervasive malnutrition are the major challenges before India. …

Paying farmers for ecological services

Ecotourism: Scrambling for paradise

Does tourism always have to be a threat to the environment? Not anymore, claim the promoters of the globally emerging industry of ecotourism. …

SEZ, how special?

Despite having burned its fingers with export processing zones, which mainly involved a number of substantial fiscal benefits, the government has …

Private affairs

The invitation was innocuous. The Confederation of Indian Industry (cii) -- the grouping of the large and most powerful industries -- was …

Mundra SEZ spells displacement for fisherfolk

The small big polluter

Small-scale industries: Where regulations are meaningless and pollution control an unaffordable luxury. Can they leapfrog to cost-effective …

Sponge iron industries are killing fields

The sponge iron industry is growing fast and polluting alarmingly. K Radhika in Chhattisgarh and Maureen Nandini Mitra in Jharkhand and Orissa …

Half-way to autonomy

Decisions by Maharashtra’s top forest official can empower gram sabhas prepare plans to revive their forests, but a policy is awaited

Universal health scare

The country’s planners are debating how to provide healthcare to all. In a drastic shift from the 65-year-old public health system, the …

Bamboo rising

Five years after it was implemented, the Forest Rights Act finally takes root. Communities across the country rush to claim rights over forests …