-The Hindu Business Line Mumbai: The World Bank will fund a Maharashtra government project for reclaiming saline lands, spread over 5 lakh hectares affecting 1,000 villages in the State. A significant percentage of the lands are in the farmer’s suicide-prone Vidarbha region. The project is a part of the larger umbrella project called Climate Resistant Agriculture, which will receive ?4,000 crore joint funding from the Bank and Maharashtra government. The World Bank will provide...

-Business Today If you want to really get smart with water, the first thing you should realise is that in most parts of India, water is abundantly available. But you also need to recall what a man named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had once said: "There is enough in this world for everyone's need, but not for anyone's greed". Today, what Gandhiji advised is being termed a "paradigm shift" in water management. The...

-TheWire.in In November, after a very cogent public speech on India’s rivers, he was completely exhausted and in pain. But that he came anyway showed his dedication. “I need to go and pay respect to the people fighting for India’s rivers” insisted the weak Gandhian, barely able to walk, on November 28. In his speech at the India Rivers Week’s inaugural ceremony on that day, Anupam Mishra, with his characteristically wry humour,...

-TheThirdPole.net Anupam Mishra, who spent three decades fighting for rejuvenation of India’s traditional water harvesting systems, died on December 19 If many of India’s ponds, wells, stepwells, springs, check dams and other traditional water harvesting systems are still in working order today, if at least a few of India’s rivers have been revived, much of the credit must go to Anupam Mishra. Through reportage, analysis and advocacy sustained over three decades, this...

-TheWire.in Jayalalithaa’s schemes – such as her canteens and baby care kits – may appear to be populist at first glance, but are actually quite entrenched in a welfare tradition. For development economists, Tamil Nadu offers many lessons in social democracy. The state has distinguished itself with visionary schemes – such as noon meals (known as the mid-day meal scheme nationally) and the Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy Maternity Benefits Scheme, which provides Rs...