This brochure offers decision-makers in the real estate and energy industries, as well as urban and municipal developers, a broad overview of the topics of decentralised energy generation and supply, and raises awareness of the goal of decarbonisation by 2050 at the latest. The advancing digitalization in the construction and …
RAM Chandra Tokas, a 48-year-old rich Haryana farmer of village Chochran, bought 4 ungainly buffalos 7 years ago to start a dairy business. Today, he makes a fat profit: a single buffalo fetches him about Rs 7,000 annually. Tokas owns 9 animals and does brisk business every year in Haryana's …
How would you define and explain the mandate of the President's Commission on Sustainable Development? Well, I think the Commission sustains on a mandate rooted in relationship between business and environmental NGOs in America. Both are now inclined to identify areas in which certain common programmes can be explored. This …
BANI Prasad Yadav, 52, a marginal farmer from Patiasa village, 15 km from Muzaffarpur in Bihar, today literally enjoys the sweet smell of success. Four years ago, he began beekeeping, helped by the Vaishali-based ngo, Bibipur Small Farmers and Resourceless Communities' Association (basfarca). Till then, he had been barely subsisting …
NGOs will now be encouraged to invest in minor irrigation projects with the active participation of the beneficiaries, according to Pranab Mukherjee, deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission. Mukherjee was speaking at the release of a study on minor irrigation that was sponsored by the Federation of Indian Chambers of …
For the denizens of Calcutta, Durga Puja is a time for noisy celebrations. But this year in mid-October, the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (wbpcb), with the help of 10 non-governmental organisations, undertook a campaign for a quieter puja. wbpcb teams monitored noise levels at 30 pandals and tried to …
A PROPOSED revision of the Indian Forest Act of 1927, by the ministry of environownt and forests (MEF), has become the focus of a controversy. Non-governowntal organisations say the MEF'S propmed kgislation - to be called the nservation of Forests and Natural ystems Act - does not do much for …
THE earthquake at Latur in 1993, which killed an estimated 9,000 people and rendered many more homeless, drove bipme the point that disaster can strike anvtime, anywhere. Fortunately, there are many organisations working to conuin damage caused by such calamities. Relief and rehabilitation measures undertaken immediately after a calamitv are …
Experts from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have proved to be as lax as other bureaucrats. At the 32nd meeting of Project Tiger's steering committee, held on August 26, members pointed out that the experts detailed to carry out a review of Project Tiger areas were to have completed the task by …
NGOs in India have joined hands to oppose the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) Act, 1992, which, they allege, will further handicap the care of India's 90 million physically challenged. Following a series of meetings, over 100 NGOs and individuals submitted a memorandum to the Union welfare minister, Sitaram Kesri, …
EVEN AS the agitation in the United States, called Fifty Years is Enough, against World Bank (WB) activities continues, it has crossed into India. Here, the movement, started in May 1992, has emerged from the Narmada agitation, and is called the Campaign Against the World Bank and Destructive International Aid …
What led the HMS to join the environmental battle? We were aware of the growing environmental awareness in the industrial sector through our occupational health and safety programmes. We realised that workers' safety goes beyond the workplace and is closely connected with the environment. Workers have fallen ill and died …
THE work of Robert Chambers, an eminent rural sociologist, has influenced academics as well as field workers and NGOs. This book aims to enunciate a new work ethic commensurate with his commitment to rural development. Chambers critiques what he calls "normal" professionalism, the "thinking, values, methods and behaviour dominant in …
SRI Lanka's more radical environmentalists are learning the relevance of G Bernard Shaw's aphorism--There are 2 tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it - as they contend with the effects of a legal instrument they have long advocated: environmental impact assessments …
COMMUNITY participation in constructing and managing check dams and the use of water through lift irrigation has transformed the local ecosystem of 37 tribal villages in the Vansda taluk of Gujarat"s Valsad district. Cropping patterns, incomes, employment and even the social system have undergone remarkable changes. The villagers are now …
Rajasthan chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is emerging as the messiah of those disgruntled with the government's environment protection policies. Shekhawat recently claimed that the regulations of the ministry of environment and forests and lobbying by rabid environmentalists were responsible for crippling Rajasthan's economy. Addressing a meeting of industrialists and …
Women's groups in India are peeved about the draft country paper on the challenges facing Indian women, presented at the Asia-Pacific Inter-ministerial Conference on Women in Development, held in Jakarta in the second week of June. This meet was preparatory to the Fourth World Conference on Women to be held …
THE temporary check dams (locally known as bandharas) across streams, have made a huge impact on the agricultural system in Hivare, a drought-prone village 35 km from Pune on the Pune-Saswad road. Even a year ago, the villagers of Hivare wouldn't have dared to dream of watering their fields all …
INTEGRATED development has changed the Hivare landscape in more ways than one. Check dams have raised the groundwater level, slowed down erosion and helped increase crop yields. Villagers like 67-year-old G D Gurav hope that water and fuelwood problems will be solved shortly. The villagers used to migrate to cities …
A BANK with no minimum deposits, no signatures, ridiculously low interest rates on loans and run by the depositors themselves: "It is not really a bank, but more of a thrift and credit scheme," says Sushma, a housewife living in Shankar Camp near Moti Bagh in the Capital, one of …
THE Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD) will focus on strengthening the involvement of non-governmental organisations to ensure the implementation of Agenda 21. "We have to move beyond the classical notion of development -- of donor-recipient relationships -- into something where instead of compensations there are obligations arising from a joint …
