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Saving the firewall of the Kyoto Protocol
India must respond to the SOS for a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol or it may be forced into emission cuts based on global emissions rankings while completely neglecting its poor human development index, says Siddharth Pathak More... Making a difference in MudumalaiSometimes, all it takes to transform a place is one man doing his job well. Rajiv Srivastava, field director of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, has made that difference, involving adivasis in forest and animal conservation, writes Mari Marcel Thekaekara More... Flaws in the Communal Violence BillA law that differentiates between Hindu and Muslim victims and proposes separate courts to try Hindu and Muslim accused only legitimises communal resentment and polarisation, writes Jyoti Punwani in this analysis of the Communal Violence Bill More... Norway’s paradox of prosperityIn peaceful, open and newly-prosperous Norway, where migrants now constitute 10% of the population, Anders Breivik is the face of increasing socio-political prejudice against the ‘other’ who looks different, eats different and prays different, writes John Samuel from Oslo More... Millet deception?The Uttarakhand government’s promotion of the cultivation and consumption of millets is welcome, says Biju Negi. What is not welcome is the simultaneous pushing of chemical fertilisers and micronutrients in this officially organic state More... Can LPG fuel a real consumer revolution?Does the proposal to limit a family’s consumption of subsidised LPG cylinders to four a year indicate a realisation that we can no longer afford to subsidise the lifestyles of the rich? If the poor can face all kinds of restrictions on their consumption of natural resources etc, why not the rich, asks Ashish Kothari. More... A dismal report cardAround 17,282 habitations in India do not have a primary school within 1 km, 148,696 government schools still do not have a building, 165,742 have no drinking water, 455,561 schools have no toilets, and around 114,531 primary schools are single-teacher schools. Where does that leave the Right to Education, which has been notified by only 9 states 15 months on? More... Why India's 'growth' focus is ignoring the food access questionCelebrating the fact that per capita agricultural income is increasing faster than overall per capita income, the government is targeting 4% growth in agriculture in the Twelfth Plan period. But this is a rosy view that does not stand up to scrutiny, says Rahul Goswami More... The cost of the urban land grabShould our focus be on earning enough or providing enough, asks Rahul Goswami. The Yamuna Expressway and development project will occupy 43,000 hectares of land currently being cultivated by 1,191 villages, removing the potential to harvest about 100,000 tonnes of foodgrain annually More... In times of war and extremism: State praxis and the ConstitutionThe Supreme Court judgment condemning Chhattisgarh state’s use of the Salwa Judum to counter the Maoist menace is not infringing on the security responsibilities of the executive or legislature, but safeguarding constitutional values and fundamental rights such as equality and right to life, says Rakesh Shukla More... Civil society as a PLU platformWhy does Anna Hazare have more legitimacy as a ‘civil society’ representative than Baba Ramdev, asks P Sainath. Both were self-selected groups claiming primacy over the elected government; both demanded that their fatwas be written into law. But Hazare was surrounded by People Like Us, Ramdev wasn’t More... Free culture for a free societyWhat is it that prompts a group of people in Calicut to start the Chamba Swatantra Cinema Project? How did the world move from copyrights over knowledge, introduced in the 16th-18th centuries and codified as the Statute of Anne, to free software, free knowledge and free culture? And when did this revolution in the way we think and create arrive in India? More... The sex-selection killing fieldsThe sex ratio of children aged 0 and 6 in India has fallen further in the last decade to 914 girls per 1,000 boys. Why are government and civil society campaigns making so little difference? More... Testing grounds, killing fieldsAs drug companies flock to India to conduct drug trials on the cheap, they capitalise on a combination of money-hungry researchers, a vulnerable population and a lax regulatory system. This is fertile ground for ethical violations that threaten the health and rights of poor Indians. Read Ankur Paliwal’s article in Down To EarthMore... Bribes: A small but radical ideaChief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu’s suggestion that bribe-giving be legalised dolls up corruption at precisely the time the Indian people are displaying their opposition to it, says P Sainath. The simplistic assumption that bribe-givers will ring the bell after the bribe ignores the realities of power equations in our society and assumes access to legal recourse More... |
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