"I am neither here, nor there"
Young Saif Ali is one of a handful of bhanyara (nomadic) Gujjars of northern Himachal Pradesh who attend college. But education has led him into …
"Every ninth baby here suffers brain damage"
A woman with a mission. ORAL ATANVFAZOVA, at 39, finds herself in the midst of a salvage operation aimed at providing succour to the teeming …
"The North has not kept its commitments on technology transfer"
Economist Klaus W Lippold is the chairperson of the Commission for Protection of the Earth's Atmosphere. As a member of the German Parliament …
'India way ahead in tackling waste'
PAUL CONNET, professor at the Chemistry department, St Lawrence University, New York, has toured 29 countries in the last 11 years, educating …
In defence of shifting agriculture
IT HAS taken almost two decades of consistent research into the northeastern tribal practice of shifting agriculture for P S Ramakrishna, …
Desertification control lacks efficiency
PERHAPS no environmental problem affects the poor of the world as much as desertification. The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) says this has …
'Values of our society lead to disaster'
In 1972, Dennis Meadows had co-authored the well-known report, Limits to Growth, along with Donella Meadows and Jorgen Randers. Recently, the …
I will not work for any company, big or small
Until recently, 14-year-old Daham was just another child carpet weaver. When he left his Bihar village to find work in UP's Mirzapur district, he …
"We are starved of funds"
KALYAN BANERJEE, director of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, speaks to MAX MARTIN about the emergence and re-emergence of viral …
The model man
Whether it is his well-known monsoon model or his new population model, Vasant Gowarikar enjoys defying the classical definitions of a specialist.…
North overconsumes resources, but efficiently
Friends of the Earth (FOE) in Netherlands has been fighting unsustainable lifestyles in the world's affluent societies by campaigning vigorously …
Indian farmers can take on the multinationals
Sharad Joshi, the well-known, controversial farm leader from Maharashtra, outlines a new strategy for agriculture.
'Orangi is not unique, I am'
Akhtar Hameed Khan is one of Asia's foremost social organisers. The Orangi Pilot Proiect, Karachi's outstanding slum development programme, …
Sustainable development is an oxymoron
WOLFGANG Sachs, born in 1946 in Munich, studied theology, sociology and history and taught at the University of Berlin for several years. At the …
"Developmental aid is part of neocolonialism"
Although RAY WIJEWARDENE, 71, holds degrees in engineering and aeronautics from Cambridge, is a Doctor of Science (Honorls causa) from Sri Lanka'…
'Coal will dominate at least for the coming 200 years'
ALEX C TOOHEY, a chemical engineer, is the chief executive of the World Coal Institute (WCI), London. The WCI is a non-profit, non-governmental …
The World Bank sees money in emissions trading
Daphne Wysham is the co-author of a recent report, The World Bank and the G-7: Changing the Earth's Climate for Business . She is also the …
'I was surprised at the sweep of the judgment'
T N GODAVARMAN THIRUMULPAD filed a writ petition in 1995, which led the Supreme Court to ban all kinds of felling in any state without prior …
Science cannot be a minion to wealth
A journalist without the pretensions of a scientist -- that's how JOHN MADDOX, editor of Nature for 15 years, would like to see himself. On his …
Here I stand, come hell or high water
Forty-five-year-old Keshubhai of Manibeli has come to symbolise not only all that is wrong with state power, but also the Narmada Bachao Andolan'…
The revolutionary who transformed health care
ZAFRULLAH Chowdhury draws inspiration as much from Hippocrates as from Mao Zedong. To the first, he owes his medical ideals and to the second, …
A reluctant candidate for Chile's presidency
Meet Manfred Max-Neef. Pianist, economist, eco-humanist and politician from Chile, all rolled into one. Internationally acclaimed for his concept …
National parks are luxury in Third World
KRISHNA B Ghimire, who is a project coordinator with the UN Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva, has done extensive research on …
Gene transfer yields pest-resisting rice strain
Darshan S Brar, who has been working for years on rice hybrids at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, talks about gene …
Making science, technology serve the people
For R S Hegde, a primary school principal and rural technologist, science is useless if it remains confined to labs and libraries.
