-AP Rural America now accounts for just 16 percent of the U.S. population, the lowest ever. The latest 2010 census numbers hint at an emerging America where, by mid-century, city boundaries become indistinct and rural areas grow ever less relevant. Many communities could shrink to virtual ghost towns as they shutter businesses and close down schools, demographers say. More metro areas are booming into sprawling megalopolises. Barring fresh investment that could...
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Our Self-righteous Civil Society by Pranab Bardhan
Over the last few decades thenon-party volunteer organisations have been much more effective in Indian public space and more articulate in policy debates than the traditional Left parties. This essay, while recognising the manifold achievements of these organisations, reflects on the serious limitations of the activities of the voluntary sector and argues that when they usurp certain roles they can become a threat to representative democracy. [Pranab Bardhan (bardhan@econ.berkeley.edu) is at...
More »The State Of The War by NIRMALANGSHU MUKHERJI
A war has broken out in some parts of east-central India, especially some regions of the Dandakaranya forests that span across the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh. Reportedly, there are thousands of Maoist guerrillas armed with sophisticated weapons confronting a vast array of paramilitary forces assembled by the government of India. Caught in the crossfire are millions of poor, marginalised and historically isolated adivasis. Their habitat, in which...
More »Singur Is Still The Waste Land- by Ashish K Mishra, Archisman Dinda
On the night of June 21, around 10 p.m., the police of West Bengal’s Hooghly district descended on Tata Motors’ half-built Singur plant and threw out the private guards there. In about half an hour, the new government in West Bengal, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, took over the 997 acres that had proved to be the Waterloo of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and its allies. Earlier,...
More »CM takes a U-turn on POSCO plant
-DNA The drama surrounding the proposed Posco steel plant in Halligudi, Gadag district, took another twist on Thursday when representatives of farmers, under the banner ‘Raitha Hitharakshana Samiti’, handed over letters signed by 375 farmers stating that they were ready to part with their land for the plant. Somashekarappa Eerappa Channalli, who spearheaded the group, said the protests against the plant were politically motivated. “The reality is that many farmers are...
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