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Nature has rights too The fundamental human rights on which human survival depends are nature’s rights, and it is time we safeguarded them More... Saving conservation laws from the conservationists!The two petitions that have been lodged with the Supreme Court against the Forest Rights Act 2006 could undermine not just the FRA but many of our conservation and environmental laws, undoing decades of hard work by conservationists, says Ashish Kothari More... Tibet needs meaningful autonomy, not independence: Dalai LamaSpiritualism alone cannot fill stomachs, says the exiled spiritual leader of the Tibetans in this exclusive interview. He believes there are benefits to staying with China, but only if China learns to respect democracy, civil rights and religious freedom More... The challenges of micro-finance in the north-eastThe model adopted in India for disbursing micro-credit to the lower income groups through Self Help Groups (SHGs) will have to be suitably modified if the eight states of the north-east are to be included in financial services, says a recent study More... The grammar of protestKerala does not tolerate anything but calibrated and conventional protest. The media recently “exposed”a group of youngsters expressing solidarity with the Chegara land struggle as frolicking and not serious. They trivialised in the process both the cause and the process of investigative journalism More... Development without inclusiveness aggravates resentments: Asma JehangirThe difference between the communalisation of Kashmir and of Gujarat is that there is no State complicity in the former, and no remorse in the latter, says Pakistani activist Asma Jehangir, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion for the UN, who recently toured India More... India still on top of the world polio mapDespite launching the largest ever mass immunisation campaign against polio in February 2003, targeting 165 million children, the battle against polio has not been won. To understand the causes of the repeated occurrence, we need to understand the profile of the wild polio virus More... Warning: Food crisis aheadInternational wheat prices have risen 300% in the last five years, and foodstocks are plummeting. With small farms being gobbled up by big agribusiness, farmland increasingly diverted for industrial purposes, and the international focus shifting from staple foods to cash crops, the world now faces an impending food crisis More... How India lives: Inequality, impoverisation and identityA recent paper in EPW clearly demonstrates the links between poverty and vulnerability caused by social identity in India. It also demonstrates the extent to which inequality is increasing. This is a recipe for political dissent, says John Samuel More... Short-term remedy, but no long-term visionThe Rs 60,000 crore farm loan waiver is a positive step towards addressing agrarian distress. But the 25,000 crore booster for new farm initiatives, which focuses entirely on agribusiness, corporate agriculture and food retail, is likely to lead to further despair. The focus should be on sustainable agriculture More... Farms or factories?At a heated debate in Delhi recently, Union Commerce Secretary G K Pillai presented the government’s justification for SEZs. But the central question remained unanswered: how can India’s 630 million farmers transition to other occupations? More... In praise of political partiesPolitical parties are crucial for the vitality of a democracy. But across the world, political parties have been reduced to mere electoral mechanisms, networks to capture power, says John Samuel More... A hundred dead gharials and the Gaia effectOver 100 gharials mysteriously died in the Chambal river recently, possibly poisoned by toxins. This points to the fact that wildlife conservation will simply not survive if we concentrate only on a few islands called ‘protected’ areas, writes Ashish KothariMore... Food on the table: What it costs in urban IndiaHard data now shows the size of the food price burden on urban households. From Cuttack to Panaji, Jammu to Chennai, families have paid more every year for the last three years for staple foods More... Izzat ka mamla hai: The doomed love story of Rizwanur-PriyankaThe indictment of the police by the CBI in the Rizwanur Rehman case in Kolkata reveals the complicity of State and society in maintaining and perpetuating regressive socio-cultural prejudices in the name of family honour and religious belief More... |
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