Women-led and women’s rights organizations are on the frontlines of today’s humanitarian crises—but many are at risk of disappearing. As global needs rise due to conflict, climate change, and displacement, deep cuts to foreign aid are threatening organizations that provide life-saving services for women and girls. In March 2025, UN …
If the State holds on to the market logic and sees the challenge in land acquisition as a problem of individual will of the “affected families” whose consent has to be taken (even when it is of a high order, i e, 80%), then it can be expected that the …
The 2011 Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill on land acquisition recently tabled in Parliament is well-intentioned but seriously flawed. Its principal defect is that it attaches an arbitrary mark-up to the historical market price to determine compensation amounts. This will guarantee neither social justice nor the efficient use …
When the World Bank cancelled its loan for the Sardar Sarovar Project on the Narmada in 1993, it was the first time that the institution had terminated an agreement due to environment/rehabilitation reasons. The decision culminated nearly a decade of an intense tussle within the World Bank between the central …
This note explains the importance of using a conflict-sensitive approach to respond to climate change in conflict-prone or conflict-affected contexts. It offers guidelines and emerging principles on how climate change and development policymakers and practitioners can promote peace-positive climate change adaptation actions which can yield the double dividend of building …
In August, western Odisha was shut down 13 times to protest the state government’s decision to build three barrages on the Mahanadi river. They are meant to dam surplus water downstream of the Hirakud reservoir to generate 320 MW power, and, as recently announced, to irrigate farms. Not a single …
Calling on the Government to halt the completion of the Koodankulam Nuke plant, hundreds of people in Tamil Nadu are sitting on a fast for the tenth straight day. Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanasamy was sent as an emissary to address the concerns of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa …
Matters reached a head earlier this year when the prime minister assured the power ministers’ conference the government would decide within a month about power projects which were ready in all respects except for environment clearance. At a meeting convened by the prime minister’s office, the Kayamkulam project in Kerala …
A hacker group has attacked Blackberry’s website after the company said it would assist the police investigating riots in the UK. On August 10, Team Poison defaced the official Blackberry blog, posting a message that threatened the firm with retaliation if it handed users’ data to the authorities. UK police …
THE three-year-old peaceful protest of Mavla taluka residents against the laying of a water pipeline turned violent on August 9 when three farmers were killed in police firing. Residents of 75 villages of the taluka in Pune are angry over the Maharashtra government’s decision to lay the pipeline from the …
MONTHS before its expected date of becoming operational, the Koodankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district has earned the ire of people living nearby. On August 15, three gram sabhas passed resolutions asking for its closure. About 60,000 people live within 10 km of the 2,000 MW plant, …
We were standing at the edge of what looked like a swamp—grass and pools and streams. On one side was heavily barricaded land with high walls, barbed wires and armed security. A board read: East Coast Energy, Kakarapalli. This was where a bloody battle had taken place a few months …
The recent island wide elephant census has revealed there are 5,879 elephants in Sri Lanka and this marks the highest density of wild elephants in the Asian continent, Agrarian Services and Wildlife Minister S.M. Chandrasena said yesterday. According to the census out of a count of 1,107 baby elephants, 122 …
For many disadvantaged communities in developing countries, ecological issues are not a matter of luxury, but a matter of survival. In India, protests and social movements are expressing these worries.
The growth of militant left radicalism, known as the Naxalite movement in official documents and civil society discussions, has acquired considerable prominence in the public policy discourse, media coverage and interaction with social scientists. The subject has also been deliberated upon in seminars across the country. The Government policy to …
Half a decade after announcing the project, work is yet to begin on Pohang Iron and Steel Co Ltd's (POSCO) proposed 12 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) steel mill in Orissa because of delays in securing regulatory approvals and continuing protests surrounding land acquisition. The project was expected to be …
This document sets out a guideline for adopting water resource management initiatives while delivering water, sanitation and hygiene education services in both rural and urban contexts. It is intended to guide WaterAid’s partners in Nepal in the delivery of appropriate services and technologies to fit the needs of different users. …
A farmer was killed and about 30 were injured on August 2 when police lathicharged farmers opposing land acquisition by the state for a power project in Punjab’s Mansa district. Private company Indiabulls Power Limited is planning to set up a 1,320 MW thermal power project on 357 hectares (ha) …
Libyan women unload empty water bottles for filling at a distribution centre outside a Tripoli mosque on Monday Tripoli residents were hunting for water supplies from tankers and neighbours’ wells on Monday as the shortage triggered by the civil war’s arrival in the capital bit deeper. Amid other signs of …
Climate shift has at times been fingered as a culprit in triggering conflict, fuelling for instance the 1789 French Revolution by wrecking harvests and driving hungry peasants to the city. Evidence to back the theory has often been contested as sketchy or anecdotal - but the case has been boosted …
