-Grist Media   The people of the Thar desert have their ways. This story unfolds over a year and recounts history through contemporary lives lived gently and with the land. It experiences first-hand the extraordinary old magic of growing lush crops in the desert. The land was the color of burnt caramel. It was flat and it was featureless: there was no tree in sight, no blade of grass, no ditch, no dune,...

-The Hindu     In the ‘development versus environment' debate, the demand is always for a compromise on environmental concerns, never for a moderation of developmental activities There is hope in the air: years of corruption, ‘policy paralysis' and a non-functioning government are gone and there is a forceful, efficient, decisive leader at the helm. However, while joining in the national mood of hope and expectation, may one add a word of caution about...

-Live Mint   Despite its importance, reform of India's legal institutions has been seen as a ‘second order' issue India is a young nation long ruled by old laws-its police, for example, are governed by such colonial-era statutes as the Police Act of 1861, which predates independence by nearly a century. And its expanding economy requires forward-looking regulatory mechanisms to foster markets while curbing crony capitalism. India is also a nation that must...

-The Hindu   UDHAGAMANDALAM: The Union government favours a participatory approach to protecting natural resources, especially the precious soil and water, A.K. Sikka, Deputy Director-General (National Resource Management), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), said on Monday. He was inaugurating a six-day advanced training programme on planning and design of engineering structures in the watershed management programme organised by the Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute (CSWRTI) under the aegis...

-IANS   How does a warming environment affect rainfall, cropping patterns, livelihoods? What could be the alternatives that people whose livelihoods are hit by the effects of climate change do to cope? An initiative by Britain and Canada seeks to study and tackle the effects of climate change in South Asia, in tandem with TERI and Jadavpur University in India and similar institutes in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh. Canada's International Development Research Centre...