Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
The Jammu and Kashmir Government's proposal to set up two special economic zones in the state has hit a road block with the Centre rejecting its request to modify its policy on land requirement for the same. According to officials, the Union Industries and Commerce Ministry rejected the state Government's …
Land acquisition problems are threatening another project in West Bengal. A 68.4-km-long road, planned two years ago for improved connectivity between the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport and the Indo-Bangaldesh border, is stuck, with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) unable to four-lane an inch till date. The …
The Centre could give its consent to the proposed Nayachar chemical hub in two to three months. Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said an expert panel was examining the proposal sent by Bengal. Bengal's 162sqkm Nayachar-Haldia project falls short of the proposed central stipulation of 250sqkm to be called a …
This article chronicles the peaceful struggle and eventual success of the people of Alibag, Maharashtra, against the attempts by corporate bodies, with the help of the state government, to grab land for a number of coal-based power plants in the area. Had the plants come up, it would have been …
http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/home.html THE MIDDLE PATH There are many countries with malnourished and starving people; there are also some with overweight and obese people. This paradox has always dogged humankind. But the situation has assumed alarming proportions of late. With the Third World drawn willy-nilly into a globalization, the poor have become …
The Zimbabwean government has reclaimed about 1,450 farms from resettled farmers, also known as A2 farmers, after a recent land audit revealed that the new farmers were not using their farms productively. Talking to the state-owned newspaper Herald, the land reform and resettlement minister, Didymus Mutasa, said "his ministry is …
A dispute over the rights of tribals to forestland in Gujarat took a violent turn on February 13 when two tribals were killed and three others injured in a police firing at Polo in Sabarkantha district's Vijaynagar taluka. Trouble began when agitated people in the area say the police picked …
uncertainty continues in Chengara village in south Kerala's Pathanamthitta district where about 10,000 landless people forcibly settled in a rubber plantation in August 2007. The settlers, mostly dalits and tribal people, say that the government's indifference to their repeated demands for land triggered the current struggle. "Land to landless adivasis …
the Andaman and Nicobar administration has prepared a proposal to resettle people living on encroached public land since 1978. The plan, which awaits the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest's clearance, has already sparked off a row. Local ngos say it will encourage the encroachers. Official estimates show that there …
manoranjan Das bsc, llb, mca thought his degrees would get him a job at the Vedanta Alumina refinery in Orissa's Lanjigarh block. He had more reasons; one acre of his family land is now part of the refinery's ash pond. "I sent my resume several times but they didn't reply,' …
the Naxalite attack at Orissa's Nayagarh town is not a wake-up call for the state. It is a big slap on its face. The busy township, hardly 100 kilometres from the state capital, is not a usual target for Naxalites. It could not be dismissed as a stray incident as …
The eyes of Bakul Das Adhikary told the agony of Nandigram a day after the March 14 firing last year. The picture on left, published in The Telegraph on March 16, 2007, shows Bakul, 52, looking out of her house in Nandigram, waiting for news of her daughter Mahamaya, 30, …
India's states have employed several land reform measures, including reforming tenancy, imposing land ceilings, distributing government wasteland, and allocating house sites and homestead plots. With relatively modest revisions, some of the existing laws and policies can further their original intent of increasing the poor's access to rural land and providing …
In the past, research on land distribution in rural India has pointed out that the surveys by the National Sample Survey Organisation have yielded underestimates of the extent of land inequality and landlessness. In a fresh analysis, this paper, using household level data from the 48th and 59th rounds (1992 …
The national economy is growing at near double-digit rates but neither industry nor non-agricultural activities in rural India have been able to provide livelihoods for millions of rural workers. It is this failure that underlies the spurt in rural violence that has highlighted once again the issue of the poor's …
This report presents an overview of the impact of rural livelihood programmes supported by DFID in the context of the Millennium Development Goals, and explores some of the lessons learned under headings of income generation and rural growth, better management of natural resources, targeting the poorest and marginalised, and local …
SHACHI CHATURVEDI On January 31, in the community hall of South Goa’s famous Shantadurga temple a public hearing is convened to discuss the renewal of mining lease to Shakti Bauxite Mine. The company currently operates on a small part of its concession area: some 26 ha. It has applied to …
People in Kapurdi hamlet, some 30 km from Rajasthan's Barmer town, are unusually suspicious of strangers. They stop and question every outsider driving through the area. What is making them so wary is land acquisition for Jindal group's power plant and lignite mine coming up in the area. The government …
Faced by mounting protests and a 110-day-long hunger strike by a jailed indigenous rights activist, Chile's government has agreed to create a high commission for the rights of the indigenous Mapuche communities. The commission will work with the parliament to achieve full constitutional recognition of the native people. Activist Patricia …
Nayachar: The six-member expert committee constituted by the state government to see the technical and economic feasibility of a chemical industry on Nayachar liked what it saw on the first visit to the island today. Led by former ONGC chairman and the Hinduja group vice-chairman in India, Subir Raha, the …
