-CaravanMagazine.in Bina Agarwal is a Professor of Development Economics and Environment at the University of Manchester, UK. Prior to this, she was the Director and Professor of Economics at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University. Agarwal has written extensively on land, livelihoods and property rights; environment and development; the political economy of gender; poverty and inequality; legal change; and agriculture and technological transformation. Her best known work is A Field...

Representatives of around 20 civil society organizations and NGOs met the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley as part of pre-budget consultation on social sector on 12 January, 2016. Immediately after the pre-budget consultation, a press conference was held by some of these organizations to convey the media persons what demands/ suggestions were made.   Subrat Das, Executive Director of Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA, http://www.cbgaindia.org/) informed us that during...

-Livemint.com Accountability Yatra aims to cover all 33 districts of Rajasthan in 100 days, and to mobilize people join in and put pressure on the state government to bring in an accountability law Santosh Devi and Raju Devi of Raniwara in Jalore district of Rajasthan are from the Bhil tribal community. They are widows of the same man and live with their grandchild. Earnings are meagre here—every time the postman brought pension...

-NDTV Chennai:  As Chennai struggles to find its footing after the massive floods that has killed over 100 people, experts say it was a man-made disaster that was waiting to strike the city.   Over the years, water bodies across the city have been filled up and built upon, often by politicians with interests in the real estate business, say environmentalists. The result:  During incessant rains, water overflows. In 2005 a similar deluge...

-Down to Earth The rate at which informal housing is being destroyed probably far exceeds the rate at which formal housing is being constructed Troubled by the degradation of environment on and around railway tracks, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently directed Delhi government to relocate all illegal settlements along tracks in Delhi. The tribunal reasoned that the residents of these settlements practise open defecation and litter on the tracks. Housing of the...