On a wall on Station Road, among posters of Khoonkar Darinde and The Dirty Picture, Amitabh Bachchan looks out of a row of yellow-and-red posters and says, “Do boond har baar.” Here in Moradabad, the town in western Uttar Pradesh that till recently exported, besides its intricate brassware, strains of the deadly polio virus, the posters have been around for long. The writing on the wall was clear: this was...

Labour-starved Kerala looks to the east It’s Their Gulf     There’s an influx of labour into Kerala from Orissa, Assam, Jharkhand and Bengal     Migrants work in building and road construction, plywood industry, brick kilns and in hotels     Skilled workers can earn Rs 500-700 a day     Researchers estimate there are 10 lakh outsiders working in Kerala. No official figures exist. *** On Sundays, the Gandhi Bazaar in Perumbavoor, a small town in Kerala near...

India has not recorded a single case of polio in 12 months - the longest ever. However, the Indian strain of wild poliovirus imported by several other countries like Angola, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Bangladesh and Namibia has caused multiple outbreaks in the last decade. The strain crippling children in Congo- 92 cases in 2011 - also came from India. "India exported poliovirus to other countries in the past and is now at risk of...

A high kharif paddy production 2011-12 coupled with almost zero exports to Bangladesh has pushed down paddy prices in Bengal. Paddy is selling around Rs 850-900 per quintal below the minimum support price of Rs 1,080 per quintal. Bengal, which stands second in rice production, has produced 15% extra this kharif paddy as compared to 2010-11 kharif. A dearth of rice mills in the state is also one of the major...

Most developing countries have a love hate relationship to foreign investment. They love the jobs that it creates, the technology that it accompanies, the additional choices that it provides, and the local millionaires/billionaires it creates through creative phased restrictions. On the other hand, since many developing countries have a colonial heritage, and cash is concentrated amongst developed world MNCs, the host are wary of it. The more nationalistic elements within a country...