As a country grappling with political and infrastructural problems, there are very few issues that do not evoke extreme, often diametrically opposite, reactions in India. Population control Bills, vaccination policy, farmer income initiatives, river water sharing mechanisms or surrogacy laws—there is no dearth of topics that have triggered controversy, and …
Four years of decentralised planning have resulted in a functional division between state plans and local plans. Policy analysts say this would lead to subsequent material improvement in local life, for example, better management of agriculture and water resources. "An important change is the right focus of planning and, so, …
The future of the decentralisation process is uncertain, and the real threat comes from the bureaucracy. A wide spectrum of people - from political leaders to policy planners - share such fears. "The bureaucracy is organised, and is a great problem. Earlier there was stiff resistance from the bureaucracy to …
as the Union health ministry's 45-day deadline for comments and suggestions regarding the withdrawal of the ban on non-iodised salt approaches (June 24), conflicting reports in the media have created confusion in the people's minds. What has served to exacerbate matters is the fact that the reports emanate from within …
it seems that the days of voluntary work and activism might soon be over. Of late the government has become intolerant to such people. Two cases with serious implications have come up in Goa. In one case, an animal rights campaigner was deported out of the country after being "hounded …
In one of the largest settlements to arise from lawsuits involving biotechnology, us agribusiness group Cargill has been ordered to pay $100 million to Pioneer Hi-Bred to settle charges that it used genetic material belonging to Pioneer. Of the sum, only a part of the payment reflects damages for previous …
It is a point won by the people of Umbergaon district in Gujarat. Unnerved by the rising public outcry against the proposedRs 1,600-crore Maroli port, California-based multi-national company (MNC) Unocal has pulled out of the project and left its Indian partner Natelco to face the public wrath. On the other …
With the spate of political support that the concept of rainwater harvesting has received in recent weeks from Central ministers and state chief ministers, the attack from pro-dam lobbies had to come. The government of Gujarat appears to be especially miffed as it had probably hoped that this drought would …
two separate incidents have recently shown the sorry state of governance in India. One happened in Almora, Uttar Pradesh, while the other occurred in Gujarat. Both are states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party ( bjp ). Although on two different planks, both the events throw light on the intolerant …
It makes us wonder whether there is a place for civil society in the country that claims to be the world's largest democracy. The recent incident in Gujarat
In japan , "the land of paradoxes', as Masafumi Nagao, a professor at the Centre for the study of International Cooperation in Education at Hiroshima University, puts it, the third sector that constitutes the non-profit and the non-governmental sector "is not without history'. The first and the second sectors comprise …
it is a right. Yet on paper it looks more like a privilege granted to the electorate than a right. However, despite its shortcomings, the Right to Information Bill, that was recently passed by the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, is definitely a step forward towards ensuring more transparency in the state's …
the book is called Earth in the Balance . But it remains to be seen whether this environmental treatise can actually tilt the balance in favour of its author, the Democrat us vice president Al Gore who will defend his seat against the Republican nominee, Governor George W Bush of …
the failure of policies initiated by the forest department has led to a flourishing business for brokers involved in the sale of medicinal plants and non-wood forest products. This has resulted in the extensive destruction of biodiversity in Kotoor town of Kerala. An hour-long bumpy drive from the state capital …
a huge illegal consignment of timber worth several crores has been seized by forest department officials at a number of railway stations including Nangloi (Delhi), Rajpura (Punjab) and Tinsukhia (Assam) recently. Of a total of 93 wagons carrying timber from the northeast, 27 were detained at Rajpura. Thirteen of them …
HERE is something for those who would not believe that the wars of this century will be fought over water-related issues. Three people died and 20 were injured on December 14 in Falla village, 28 km from Jamnagar town of Gujarat, when the police opened fire on a mob of …
Dear Prime Minister, This is a year of severe drought in Gujarat and western Madhya Pradesh - an area that is well known for natural disasters of this kind. During the last general elections, your home minister, fighting for a fresh term from this region, had to face evocative slogans …
in all probability, the Delhi government is going to miss the bus. With only five months left for the expiry of the Supreme Court's (sc's) deadline to convert 1,800 diesel buses which are more than eight years old to compressed natural gas (cng), the possibility of its implementation seems very …
For almost eight months the DTC did precious little to implement this Court order March, 1999: First tender for conversion is floated by the DTC April, 1999: DTC files an affidavit for an extension of the Court deadline and permission to procure Euro I compliant diesel buses April 21, 1999: …
