Some news is considered more worth publicizing than some other news. This is part of an essential discipline, for otherwise we will remain perennially buried under an avalanche of data, information and gossip. The wheat, never mind the change of metaphor, has to be separated from the chaff. The media perform this task. Occasionally the government of the LAND helps the media to do the choosing: the authorities have their...

IN 1974 Henry Kissinger, then America’s secretary of state, told the first world food conference in Rome that no child would go to bed hungry within ten years. Just over 35 years later, in the week of another United Nations food summit in Rome, 1 billion people will go to bed hungry. This failure, already dreadful, may soon get worse. None of the underlying agricultural problems which produced a spike in...

The article presents the political and economic impacts of various kinds of natural and man-made disasters and associated displacement of populations, and argues for a wider and more inclusive definition of disasters in the interest of human rights, social justice and equity for the victims of disasters. Legislation, Disasters and People Numerous disasters at national and international levels have caused governments to recognise the need for rapid and effective response to provide...

Writes to Madhya Pradesh CM about Maheshwar clearance  Proposes to stop construction work on the dam ‘Lack of progress on relief & rehabilitation front’ BHOPAL: Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has written to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan informing him of “grave violations” of the conditions for environmental clearance given for the Maheshwar dam project by the MoEF under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. As a...

For a man who will inherit vast tracts of fertile farmLAND in Punjab, India's grain bowl, Jaswinder Singh made what seemed to him a logical career move -- he took a job with a telecoms company in New Delhi. "I can't go back to the village after an M.B.A. Delhi has more money, better quality of life. The job is more satisfying, and you don't depend on the weather or...