-Down to Earth   The Gram Nyayalaya Act was passed in 2008 to make the judicial process participatory, inexpensive and accessible to rural India. But rural courts are still few and far between When a mobile court visited Luhari village in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district a year ago, it was a blessing for people like Birsan Singh. A tea vendor, Birsan would lose his daily income whenever he had to attend court. He...

-The Hindu   On the first anniversary of the Uttarakhand disaster, here's a look at issues plaguing the fledgling state. On June 16, it will be a year since Uttarakhand experienced its worst natural disaster. It was also a year of loss, of grief, of recovery and of resilience. While those affected continue to cope and rise, we need to look beyond the disaster in order to unravel the contradictions and challenges that...

-The Times of India   LUCKNOW: With the spectre of a drought-like condition looming large in the state, the contingency plan of the government, too, is severely deficient on two basic component: power and seeds. There is no special plan to provide power to farmers who are already desperate due to delayed rains, to help them irrigate their farms for paddy saplings. Besides, seeds are hardly available in government storages. In drought-like situation,...

-The Hindu Business Line   Loan write-offs will become redundant if we have a robust crop insurance system The Chief Minister of residual Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu may have bought time in implementing his lavish pre-poll promise of waiving ₹54,000 crore worth of farm loans. The decision to appoint an expert committee to recommend guidelines on the waiver may well be a ploy to defer - even soften - the impact of...

-The Hindu   The official sanitation policy has been uniquely focussed on building toilets. But the connection between good health and using toilets has not yet been made When the road in front of his house is finally laid, in Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh, Ramesh Kumar hopes he will get permission to set up a small shop in a corner of his compound. Another corner will have a temple, as his father wants. To...