Uncommon swing for commons

States rush in with new policies and programmes to protect village land

Devolution meet a damp squib

Precious little achieved as states resist financial empowerment of panchayats

Hope or hype?

CMP: thrust correct, implementation a challenge

Toothless at 10

A decade after their inception, Panchayati Raj bodies are yet to be granted adequate powers

Women and a nervous regime

Emboldened by SHG movement, reservation in panchayats, women emerge as key constituency

World Bank gets jittery

As bank gears up for competition, it may further dilute environmental safeguard policies

Grim reality of India's poverty dip

ADB officials quit protesting policies

The Northeast's power burden

The centrality of the Northeast to India's ambitious national electrification plan cannot be overstated, since the region will be required to …

Japan's nuclear crisis, a warning for India

Sea water being used for the first time to cool the nuclear reactor

Not a bankable strategy

World Bank's forestry projects have not helped reduce poverty, says its own evaluator

Below Poverty Line census: fudging figures?

A survey currently underway in states to calculate the number of below poverty line households is being opposed tooth and nail by civil society …

Parliament monsoon session: some work done, a lot of time wasted

A look at the business transacted and other highlights

Pitfalls of a uniform food regime

In face of drought and rising food prices, attention shifts to local diet and food diversity

Rural people can now get anganwadis on demand

No substance in budget's agriculture hype

Grains of doubt

Rural affairs ministry rejects wage payment in kind under rural job scheme

‘Forest department is the encroacher’

When V Kishore Chandra Deo became the Union Minister for Panchayati Raj and Tribal Affairs three months ago, both the ministries were in inertia.…

GDP ignores cost to the environment

Can this flawed measure of growth be reversed?

Poverty level will increase if health expenditure included

Planning Commission factors in less than one rupee a day as health expenditure in its affidavit to the apex court

Why Hirakud dam failed to check flood

The river has strayed from its flood control route

Where’s Bhoodan Land?

Bank’s first contest

Developing countries challenge US monopoly by putting up candidates for World Bank’s presidency

THE SECOND INDEPENDENCE

Tiny forgotten villages teach India a firsthand lesson in governance. Down To Earth reporters and photographers fan out to six states to discover …

Rickshaw pullers get together

On January 5, 2003 hundreds of rickshaw pullers in Hyderabad got together to declare: "Protect our right on roads."