-India Climate Dialogue A small village in Rajasthan sets an example by its model of environment governance which combines traditional and religious practices with scientific concepts to tackle problems brought on by climate change Lapodiya, a village of 200 households in Rajasthan, is a shining example of how environment governance at the grassroots level can save a village from natural disasters. Here, people have adopted innovative water conservation practices and a culture...

-The Telegraph The National Democratic Alliance government is planning to scrap the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The chief minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje, had already asked for the employment programme of the MGNREGA under which the state was obliged to provide employment on demand (failing which an unemployment allowance of a specified amount had to be paid), to be downgraded to a mere "food-for-work" programme, where the state...

-The Hindu ‘The government has taken steps to destroy MGNREGA, an act that gives purchasing power to the rural poor, following prejudicial contentions of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders' It's no secret that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. MGNREGA is perhaps the only law in the world which guarantees 100 days of wage employment a year to one member of a rural...

-The Hindu Puducherry (Tamil Nadu): S. Janaki, a farmer, laughs when she says she is unsure of what to do with the extra time that she now has. "Earlier, I used to have back problems because of the tiring labour involved in paddy cultivation. Now, I find working in the field much easier and that it involves lesser time," she adds. Janaki is among a group of 15 farmers in Vinayagampet village...

-Women's Feature Service Tribal families in Bankura, West Bengal, living on a stable diet of potato and rice and occasionally some 'daal' (lentils), are now consuming a variety of vegetables, cereals, fruits and animal protein with relish on a daily basis, marking a sea change in the nutrition parametres in one of the most backward districts of India. The credit for this dramatic transformation goes to the dry land sustainable integrated farming...