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. …
Roughshod riding SEZs will trample on farmers' rights A farmer in Cheete Kalan village in Amritsar, Harjeet Singh Hundal, has big plans. For the past year, he has been using organic manure on his fertile and irrigated agricultural land and he can't stop talking about it. function table() { var …
But the farmers are not the only ones who have been protesting against these special zones. An unlikely but forceful voice has been that of the ministry of finance. Though the commerce and finance ministries had drawn swords over the issue of whether sezs will result in a revenue loss …
The internal structure of sezs and their relations with the world outside are equally controversial. Environment and labour standards followed inside sezs are suspect all around the world. Chinese sezs are particularly notorious for their lax labour and environmental standards. The sez Act has in its own way tried to …
Since the 1990s, India has had an economic regime that has placed a premium on privatising enterprise. Liberalisation and globalisation are keywords of this regime. The frenetic rush to globalise is in large measure motivated by the desire to earn foreign exchange at any cost. In recent times, special economic …
Lebanon to sue Israel: Lebanon is preparing legal action to sue Israel for damages over a huge oil spill, which occurred when Israeli warplanes bombed the Jiyyeh power station on the Mediterranean coast off Beirut in mid-July. The bombing spilled around 110,000 barrels of oil into the sea and has …
Militia minors The state of terror Errabore relief camp, Dantewada, September 2, 2006: Ramesh carries a .303 rifle. He’s not sure of his age. “Maybe 16,” he says doubtfully, and adds that he hasn’t really shot anyone yet. The teenager has had only a week’s combat training at the police …
With the upsurge of Naxal activity, there has been a rethink on development and land reform programmes. Some efforts are being made, especially by the centre, to push the programmes in tribal belts. The perception that Maoist violence is not just a law and order issue is gaining ground. In …
the furore over Tata's proposed Rs 1,000 crore small car plant in Singur, Hooghly may be creating rifts among longtime Left partners, it's also helping bring old foes together. But the fear of being labelled anti-industry has the new allies still hedging their bets. The latest installment of this drama …
in orderto allay fears of tax evasion and land grab, the Board of Approval (boa) for special economic zones (sezs) recently issued fresh guidelines for building social infrastructure, hospitals, schools and houses within sez s and also set new investment criteria for developers to qualify for tax breaks. In its …
the Salwa Judum movement, an armed counter-Naxalite campaign in Chhattisgarh comprising of local tribal and non-tribal people backed by the state, is precipitating a deeper crisis in the state instead of solving the problems posed by extreme Left insurgency. Involving civilians directly in the fight against armed insurgents (mostly local …
At a media-studded book release function, a leading editor was recounting a recent incident. He was travelling with a top Uttar Pradesh politician (who we will not name but call Mr A) in his brand new plane. The politician told him that the plane was a gift from a leading …
the plot around special economic zones (sezs) in India thickens with a recent decision of the empowered group of ministers (egom) on sezs to remove a cap of 150 on the number of such zones in the country. The number of sezs will now go up, but only after reviewing …
The Uttar Pradesh government in 1996 (now Uttaranchal) started an ambitious tea plantation programme, which was to be spread across 12,000 hectares (ha). It included a series of tea estates to aid the state's economy and provide farmers with an additional source of income. Now, after 10 years, out of …
a shameful scam has been perpetrated in the hills of Uttaranchal. Some years before the new state was inaugurated the then Uttar Pradesh government conceived a grandiose scheme of acquiring 12,000 hectares of land to launch a number of tea estates. Thankfully, it now appears, most of the plan remained …
Wayward growth Since 2002, India has been the largest producer of sponge iron, also called direct reduced iron (dri), in the world. Today about 20 per cent of the sponge iron produced worldwide is made in India. The growth of this industry is touted as one of the major success …
The Australian federal government recently tabled the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (Northern Territory) for amendment in parliament. The amendment seeks to place the financial resources of land councils under the control of the federal indigenous affairs minister, who will decide their level of funding, how they spend their money and …
penalised: A US-based water company, United Utilities Plc, has been prosecuted for the fourth time this year. A UK court asked it to pay about US $18,600 as penalty for discharging 56,000 cubic metres of untreated sewage into the river Mersey in May 2006. The Wirral Magistrate's Court fined the …
The uk High Court recently ruled in favour of a group of Indian Ocean islanders who were forcibly removed to make way for a us airbase decades ago. The Ilois or Chagossians are inhabitants of Diego Garcia, the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, which is …
india has set up a new Earth Commission and renamed its Union ministry of ocean development the Union ministry of earth sciences. The move is important since it is seen as the the first step of the Indian government to integrate all researches on land, ocean and atmoaspheric systems. "The …
function table() { var popurl="image/20060430/47-table.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=400,height=350,scrollbars=yes") } "We don't want any free clothes, education or even food. All we want are our lands and forests,' demands Karrian. The 60-year-old from Devalaya hamlet of Gudalur taluka in Tamil Nadu's Nilgiri district belongs to the Panniya tribe. Anthropologists classify this tribe as …
