A fast growing economy is a thirsty economy and India is no exception—with the country’s water supply already under great strain, India must reassess its consumption to meet escalating demands for water to produce food and energy. Business-as-usual water practices cannot remain the same in India as the economy and its demand for freshwater grows over the coming decades. With an astounding 75% of freshwater already used for agriculture in India,...

Inflation declined marginally to a 10-month low of 8.58% in October, prompting policymakers to proclaim victory in their effort to cool prices, but economists remained sceptical saying the fight is far from over. The decline was mainly due a fall in food inflation to 14.13% from 15.71% in September and the base effect, or higher inflation of last year, data released on Monday showed. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the full impact...

Mining companies will have to start paying compensation to project-affected people right from the day a mining block is allocated to them and not when they start generating profits, a proposal that will further sweeten the deal for those who lose their land to industrialisation, but stoke more protest from miners. Once the project starts making profits, the displaced families will be provided an annuity income from the net income, but...

Developing countries should act now to head off their own "obesity epidemic", says a global policy group. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says obesity levels are rising fast. In a report in the Lancet medical journal, it says low-income countries cannot cope with the health consequences of wide scale obesity. Rates in Brazil and South Africa already outstrip the OECD average. Increasing obesity in industrialised countries such as the UK and...

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...