In 25 years, the Narmada Bachao Andolan has introduced an alternative development discourse in India. ON the full moon night in October, hundreds of people from all over India gathered at Bhilgaon, one of the many tribal villages in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, in the foothills of the Satpura mountain range and on the banks of the river Narmada. The place resounded with jingles, revolutionary folk songs and strains of...

POSCO wants to build a USD 12 billion steel mill in eastern India, but the project has faced delays because of environmental worries and protests by local residents concerned about the mill's impact on their agriculture-based livelihoods. Here are some questions and answers about the project, which has already been delayed by three years: What is the project? The world's third-largest steel company wants to set up a mill in the eastern state...

Making fresh demand for withdrawal of clearances accorded to Posco's mega steel plant, Left parties today sought shifting of the project from the proposed site near Paradip to any nearby place in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district. The demand was made before the Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh when a delegation of the Left parties including CPI, CPI(M), Forward Bloc along with RJD and Samajwadi Party, met him at New Delhi. In a joint...

Bottlenecks at every stage in the implementation of MGNREGA in Atra village in Chhattisgarh are making the villagers disillusioned. “If payment is unreliable, the poorest and the most vulnerable opt out of the system...” On a rainy day in September, Bir Singh Malekar, 45, rues his decision to stay back in Atra village in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district this summer, instead of leaving in search of work. “I usually go to Chennai between...

A Dalit-dominated hamlet in remote area of Uttar Pradesh (UP) is on the radar of top officials of the Mayawati administration nowadays. At the crux of their interest is a new goddess ‘Angrezi Devi’. Construction of a temple consecrated to this goddess of English is in full swing in Jang Bahadur Ganj village of Lakhimpur Kheri district. But tension has already begun to simmer over this unique campaign to popularise English...