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Bhutan opts off the hi-growth escalator
Bhutan pumps 20% of its GDP into health and education. Ninety per cent of the population has some form of health coverage, and the UN's World Food Programme is readying to exit the country. So, is a developed nation one that has a high GDP, or one like Bhutan, which refuses to accept that consuming more and producing more is the road to happiness? More... Children of the seaFor weeks after the tsunami, children in the fishing villages around Chennai displayed signs of trauma, and viewed the sea that had engulfed their homes and disrupted their lives with fear. Four months after the disaster, they're returning to school, and returning also, to the giving sea More... Invisible victims of the tsunamiParts of the Chennai coast look like a mini UN, with shelters, fibreglass boats, and the signboards of various benefactors working in the area. The fishing communities hit by the tsunami are readying to go back to sea. In other parts, however, are the dalits, Irulas, saltpan workers and marginal farmers, huddled under tarpaulin sheets, quite forgotten in the rehabilitation effort More... A long road to happinessThe idea that Gross National Happiness (GNH) is more important than Gross National Product (GNP) is the cornerstone of development in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Manoj Nadkarni travelled to Bhutan to find out whether GNH is indeed a better measure of a country and its people than economic indices. This is the first of his despatches More... When waste becomes a fashion statementHundreds of thousands of used plastic bags from Delhi are being recycled by Conserve into handbags that are being sold in London and soon in Italy by Benetton. Armies of ragpickers and some poor women from a relocated village on the Delhi-Haryana border work to keep the supply chain going More... Whole villages up for sale in Punjab1,000 acres of land in Bhutal Kulan village in Sangrur district of Punjab are up for sale. In neighbouring Bhutal Khor, 1,200 acres are going a-begging. With crops failing and mounting debts, farmers in Punjab have no option but to sell their lands dirt-cheap. This is the first of a special series on Punjab's agricultural crisis More... Dahanu: The Environmentalists versus The PeopleThe recent Supreme Court order asking Reliance Energy to pay up Rs 300 crore or face closure of its polluting power plant in Dahanu has been welcomed by environmentalists who have been fighting for years to preserve the region's eco-fragile status. But without public engagement and the support of the people, the most radical of judgments will find no agency for implementation More... Moving fishermen off their lands: Safety considerations or dispossession?Fishermen in some tsunami-affected regions in south India are allegedly being forced to sign documents stating that they are relinquishing their land. If they don't, they are denied government relief material. The move is ostensibly aimed at shifting them out of the danger zone and further inland More... How a GM debate eludes the Indian mediaImportant decisions and claims are being made about GM technologies which aren't covered in the Indian media. Journalists either lack access to information about GM crop trials or don't understand the issues at stake. Meanwhile, biotech corporations are pressing ahead, leaving decisions that will affect millions of Indians unexamined More... Profits, not poverty, drive agricultural researchMuch of the new crop technology -- such as genetic modification -- is in private hands. It appears to focus on crops that boost India's export economy and serve the middle classes, ignoring crops that can feed India's poor More... Waiting at Room No 60, Sassoon General HospitalSuresh Sawant is the 600th-odd HIV-positive patient listed in the register of those applying for free anti-retroviral therapy at Pune's largest public hospital. He has been camping on the footpath outside the hospital with his family. But, as of now, only 86 of the hundreds applying are receiving the free therapy More... Hijacking the organic movementDr Prabha Mahale, pioneer of organic farming in India, talks about the ways in which national governments and agribusiness corporations are shifting the focus of the organic movement away from the small farmer and the domestic market More... Jatropha fuels a MercedesLast year, automobile giant Daimler-Chrysler successfully drove a car 5,900 km on 1,300 litres of bio-diesel, processed from jatropha plantations in Gujarat's wastelands. Could bio-diesel be the significant fuel of the future? If so, it could not only sustain fuel demands but help regenerate 65 million hectares of wastelands in India More... Food security for the tsunami-affectedAs the government moves from 'relief mode' to 'rehabilitation mode', in areas affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami, it must do so seamlessly so as not to further marginalise already marginalised communities. Otherwise, these communities could face serious food scarcity as they struggle against caste biases and attempt to get their livelihoods back on track More... Community takes charge of education in remote Kargil villageThe people of Chuttumail Doks village in Kargil decided that teaching was far too serious a matter to be left to schoolteachers at the government primary school. So they set up a Village Education Committee to monitor the school's activities. Since then the school has become the envy of the surrounding villages and has witnessed a dramatic increase in enrolments More... |
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