Win some, lose most
To find out what the Union Budget has in store for science and the environment, Down To Earth spoke to environmentalists and representatives …
June 30, 2003: The day conservation policy could have changed
Usually, the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) does manage to stick to its guns in the face of adversity, or even rationality. But …
Reach the last person
Will that crippling scourge called polio be wiped out from the face of the earth by the end of this year? The World Health Organization (WHO) …
The power game
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have become increasingly influential in the past 50 years. Awareness of human rights and social and …
Proper channel online
Software helps Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation tackle public complaints more efficiently
Another ornamental scheme
The proposed National Rural Employment Guarantee Act threatens to become just that
The statistician who "planned" India
P C Mahalanobis can rightly be called the father of Indian statistics. Today, in the year of his birth centenary, he is remembered not only as …
Working to cleanse the Ganga
Several government and voluntary agencies are involved in the onerous task of cleaning up the country's best-known river.
The never-green Gowda
The Prime Minister of India, in a rush to roll on the wheel of development, projects himself as an arrogant autocrat. His disregard for all …
As condescending as ever
The government's draft tribal policy is insensitive to most matters concerning tribals
A toy called CRZ
The original coastal regulation zone (CRZ) rules passed in February 1991 had seven sections. They have been amended nearly twice that many times …
Same problem, differing approaches
The government is roping in NGOs in the fight against pollution whereas industry is trying cleaner manufacturing processes
The virtual reality of being Indian
The remoteness of 190 villages in Orissa's undivided Koraput district is an elegy on governance. Over five decades, living in islands inside huge …
Large promises
Prime Minister Vajpayee is terribly interested in rural development these days. On his birthday he inaugurated Swajaldhara, a nation-wide water …
Circuit breaker
it in India has failed to connect people to the information they want
An ad a day will keep voters away
How bizarre can a government policy decision get? India's first national policy on resettlement and rehabilitation for people affected by …
Information power imperative
Democracy is not yet dead
Cloudy days for solar cooker
Subsidy amounts and sales figures may not always be indicators of commercial success. After a decade-old promotion campaign, only a few …
The 'Right to recall'
Palavika Patel, the former president of Anuppur municipality in Madhya Pradesh, India and Gray Davis, former governor of California, usa are two …
Miseducation in Bastar
An ethnobotanist flags the problem with education in tribal areas
A bean full of problems
In utter disregard of environmental and health safety norms, the Indian government has okayed a deal for import of soybean to satisfy oil …
Government attention sets pulses spinning
Pulse production in India is touching an all-time high, but the benefits are reaching only a few because most farmers are ignorant about the new, …
Acknowledging the role of the arbitrator
The Nuer tribals of Sudan settled their disputes in more organised and effective a manner than modern societies
Northeast ahoy!
Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has grand plans to illuminate the whole country by now harnessing hydropower from the northeast region. His …
Farming out the problem
A recent report that the Union ministry of environment and forests may be "exploring the possibility of allowing private persons to breed wild …
