Bina Agarwal , director and professor of economics, Institute of Economic Growth, has written a pioneering new book, Gender and Green Governance, that explores a central question: If women had adequate representation in forestry institutions, would it make a difference to them, their communities and forests as a national resource? Pamela Philipose spoke to Agarwal: Why has access to forests been such a conflict-ridden issue? This is not surprising. Forests constitute not...

The forthcoming India visit of the US President, Mr Barack Obama, accompanied by Mr Thomas J. Vilsack, secretary of agriculture, and Dr Rajiv Raj Shah, administrator, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is significant in the context of strengthening the Indo-US partnership in the field of agriculture production and sustainable food security. Several related issues will be discussed in Mumbai on November 6 and November 7 where an agriculture...

With a battle already brewing between central and state governments over the share of financial liabilities to implement the much-debated Right to Education (RTE) Act, activists fear that such a tussle would be a deadly blow to the law itself. While Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal has strictly asked all the states to mobilise funds to implement the Act, most of the state governments, including Karnataka have expressed their...

Striking workers at Foxconn India in Sriperumbudur near Chennai take on the corporate giant, demanding better wages. WORKERS at Foxconn-India in Sriperumbudur in Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu, have been on strike from September 24 demanding better wages. They also want the reinstatement of 24 suspended colleagues and the withdrawal of an eight-day wage cut slapped on some workers. That they have held out for so long is remarkable, not least...

There was a time when Kismati Jaiswal's house at Mandala, Mankhurd, would be demolished thrice a week. Each time, she would have nowhere to go with her children. Hundreds like Ms. Jaiswal, from Mumbai's slum pockets, gathered on Azad Maidan on Wednesday for a protest led by social activist Medha Patkar against the Adarsh Housing Society and other land scams in the city. “No one does anything to the powerful. For...