The world's biggest public-works project just got bigger. In some places it is working better than many feared; but by no means everywhere James Astill OUTSIDE Ajit Pura village, in India's arid state of Rajasthan, 42 women and a man scrape earth into panniers, hoist the panniers to their heads, and walk the contents up to a low embankment rising on the edge of the work-site. It is designed to slow the passage of monsoon flood-water, encouraging more of the precious liquid to infiltrate Ajit Pura's dusty soil. This should help irrigate just a few peasant plots for a year or two, before the embankment is washed away. And yet, modest as that sounds, to some development wonks this site is revolutionary. Its creation was a policy cornerstone of the coalition government led by the Congress party: a guarantee of 100 days' employment on public works each year to any rural household that requests it. As an eye-catching promise