‘Rethink economics of poverty’
Want poor families in north India to immunise their children? Offer the parents a small bag of lentils as an incentive and vaccination rates make …
How MGNREGA blew Rs 10,853 crore
The “little known” success story of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has unfolded as a disaster. …
Profit from the poor
Fifty-four suicides in Andhra Pradesh have blown the lid off the social posturing by microfinance companies. Before the news of the deaths sank …
‘Forests can’t survive without communities’
Nepal’s Forest Act of 1993, which allows communities to manage their forests, is admired and emulated by governments and movements across …
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 …
Impotent plan?
In August 2005, the Indian Parliament passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (nrega). The latest avatar of state-financed employment …
Kind to cash
The government has a plan to reach welfare to the poor without wasting money. It wants to put hard cash in their hands instead of spending on …
Blending green concerns into market economy
GERMAN environment minister Klaus Topfer has come under fire for his tough green laws such as the one against packaging. Environmental ministries,…
Labour vs pollution
Ever since the Supreme Court (sc) ordered closure/relocation of polluting units in Delhi, which subsequently left nearly 50,000 people jobless,…
SEZ, how special?
Despite having burned its fingers with export processing zones, which mainly involved a number of substantial fiscal benefits, the government has …
`Family farming is not a romantic idea. It is business'
The food price rise of 2007-08 highlighted that investments in the agriculture sector have reduced in the past three decades. One of the most …
Bill will push PDS reform
Development economist JEAN DREZE, known for his work on issues such as hunger, famine, social and human development in India, child health and …
Agony of the waiting
There is a strange calmness in the oncology department of government hospitals though it is more crowded that most other sections. Everybody waits.…
WSSD: dialogue of the deaf
The needs of many were once again compromised to accommodate the demands of a powerful few. Given the alarming tilt towards self-interest and …
Umbilical Discord
An estimated 8,000 babies are born with neural defects every year in Rajasthan. Most of them die within a few months of birth. They are lucky. …
In search of the missing
In the undivided Koraput district of Orissa, there exist 190 villages that have slowly been pushed off the map of India. Hurled by fast-track …
Urban India's deprived lot
India is becoming dominantly urban, and the urban poor, who are increasing in numbers, face exclusion from basic amenities like safe drinking …
Beyond The Billion
If post-Independence leaders of India had ensured full literacy, a solution would have been in sight for a lot of problems. Population, for one. …
Former militant Bijoy Hrankhal on Tripura's tribal needs
Bijoy Kumar Hrankhal was the founder member and vice-president of the Tripura National Volunteer, the first militant group in Tripura. He laid …
The goat gamble
It has been a slow and steady shift over decades. Forced by declining returns from farming in ecologically fragile areas, small farmers have been …
Solving poverty
Gurdev S Khush is the principal plant breeder in the Plant breeding, genetics and biochemistry division of the International Rice Research …
SUBSIDISED KILLING
They may survive the drought. But they cannot survive government policies. When people have to abandon their livestock, they are reduced to misery,…
Of stoves, kilns and a fine distinction between emissions
In the second week of March, activists, academics, policy-makers and experts in various fields came together in Delhi to throw light on the …
Hiware Bazar - A village with 54 millionaires
Hiware Bazar, a village in Maharashtra's drought-prone Ahmednagar district, was sliding into an abyss after degrading its environment. But in …