-Down to Earth   India's first PM born after Independence will face the old problem of poverty eradication India may have its first post-Independence-born prime minister this June. But what difference would it make in terms of the country's development agenda? How will the new prime minister face the challenges that have been there since before Independence? Or, what are the developmental challenges the new prime minister may find difficult to address? Arguably,...

-Down to Earth   Environment ministry has been delaying the process for past three years   The Supreme Court recently asked the Centre to set up by April 30 a national environmental regulator for undertaking independent, objective and transparent appraisal of projects for environmental clearances and monitoring of conditions as per the provisions of the EIA Notification of 2006.  The order came after the green bench headed by Justice A K Patnaik refused to...

-Down to Earth   Tribal voters refused to allow polling officers to put ink mark on their finger nail, fearing reprisal by Maoists In the dense forests of Saranda in Jharkhand, residents say two things rarely touch the ground-one, sunlight and, two, government development schemes. The forest had been a hotbed of Maoist activities and a large number of panchayats in Manoharpur block around the dense forest never voted in the past...

-Down to Earth   Hearing on plea to stay illegal mining to be taken up next Monday. Petitioners argue that the illegally recovered wealth from the miners should be utilised for the development of the backward mining districts in Odisha On the day it pronounced its verdict on illegal mining in Goa, the Supreme Court decided to look into illegal mining in Odisha as well. On Monday, the apex court issued notices to...

A new report entitled: The World of Organic Agriculture: Statistics and Emerging Trends 2014 by Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) says that out of the 19 lakh organic producers in the entire world during 2012, nearly 6 lakh (i.e. roughly 32 percent) are from India (see below figure 1 and link). But a grim fact is that while the rest...