The joke's on the panchayat
The recent <i>panchayat</i> elections in Madhya Pradesh was the latest edition of the mock ritual of decentralisation
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Unquiet flows the Yangtze
A December 1988 statement by 10 members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference lists some "intractable problems" of the Three Gorges project:
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The difference is in the recipe
IN INDIA, the determination and articulation of the country's stands on international issues have been the exclusive mandate of diplomats and bureaucrats. No matter how critical an issue, the people
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Er... this doesn't work
THE work of Robert Chambers, an eminent rural sociologist, has influenced academics as well as field workers and NGOs. This book aims to enunciate a new work ethic commensurate with his commitment to
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The state as hero
Rapid Strides (37 mins, directed by Shahid Jamal) is a success story in which, surprisingly, the state does not play the role of a villain. Arunachal Pradesh's Department of Power, apparently, knows
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...a taste of dry death
As the Gujarat forest department persists in planting a weed that sucks dry all the water in its vicinity, the Little Rann of Kutch gets...
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Crocodiles lend themselves very naturally to captive breeding
As far back as 1978, India's so called "snake man", <font class=UCASE>ROMULUS WHITAKER</font>, the man who played with reptiles as if they were spaghetti, demonstrated that conserving wildlife did not necessarily mean robbing local people of a liveliho
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When will the secrets be out?
WILL the Official Secrets Act determine how efficiently India can utilise and manage its resources? This is the question that the Geographical Information System (GIS), a highly-promising
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Report good, report middling
THE 2 books under review have established, dependable credentials, which is why they have the rare virtue of being eagerly awaited every year for additional insights on global developments. This
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Where have all the Indians gone?
Until we shed our communal, regional and caste identities, the quintessential Indian will remain a rare species
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Loss of energy
IN TOO pat a manner, some critics have already seen in us secretary of energy Hazel O'Leary's wide-ranging talks with her counterpart Indian ministers, evidence of a forced transfer of exorbitant
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Pakistani citizens left holding the bag
GREEN connotations of a different kind have left several Pakistani citizens aghast at a recent decision by the Sindh provincial government to ban the manufacture and sale of polythene bags made of
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Know your scientists
Most biographical dictionaries are inevitably born obese and tend to grow fatter with every edition. But this established reference work is comfortably lightweight, even in its 4th
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A bend in the Ganges
This is a river straining against captivity
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The burning of black gold
Fires of Kuwait (36 minutes, directed by Michael McKinon) and Tides of War (52 minutes, directed by David Douglas, produced by the National Geographic Society), 2 documentaries screened in New Delhi
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Exit, green fences
Hedgerows, reservoirs of biodiversity, quietly fade into extinction in Kerala
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We want to ensure an NGO in every village
Anna Hazare"s name is synonymous with rural development and people"s power. Hazare had once again hit the headlines in May by undertaking a fast at the Sant Dyaneshwar temple in Alandi, Maharashtra, to protest against the government"s apathy in tackling t
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The GEF's warped priorities
IN THEIR eagerness to assume global environmental leadership, representatives of the Indian government committed a faux pas recently by trying to grab the chairpersonship of the World Bank-controlled
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When the water begins to stink...
...Yet another rainforest disappears and a way of life dies as "development" catches up with the Guaranis of Paraguay
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The lesson from Bangladesh
When the cyclone slammed into Bangladesh on April 29 earlier this year, the anxiety in many quarters of the world was especially heightened in anticipation of huge fatalities. Exactly to the day 3