The projection by the international water resources group that India will have a water deficit of as much as 50 per cent by 2030 is a wake-up call for policymakers. As early as in 1999, the National Commission on Integrated Water Resources Development had issued a similar warning, albeit without assigning any numbers, and had called for urgent measures to cope with the emerging crisis. The report of the “2030...

Maoist-hit Koraput region will soon find a place on the international map, but for a different reason. The region is going to be recognised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation as a “globally important agriculture heritage system” on the pattern of world heritage sites declared by the Unesco, said eminent agro scientist M.S. Swaminathan here today. Considering the extraordinary biological and agricultural diversity of the Koraput region, which needs to be protected...

A Planning Commission evaluation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has questioned the effectiveness of projects implemented under the Act in boosting productivity and creating assets. NREGA, the Union government’s flagship anti-poverty programme that promises 100 days of employment every year to the rural poor, is partly credited with driving the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to victory in the April-May general election. In a presentation made at Prime Minister...

The US would consider using Sulabh International’s sanitation and water Conservation techniques and help in its promotion globally, said US Ambassador Tim Roemer addressing a group of liberated scavengers and students from under-privileged sections of society here over the weekend. Mr. Roemer, who visited Sulabh International’s headquarters on a special request from its founder Bindeshwar Pathak, lauded the work done by the NGO in the field of sanitation and commended use...

The thorny question of properly demarcating the maritime and land borders between India and Bangladesh has been highlighted during Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's first official visit to India. One of the legacies of the hasty exit of the British from India in 1947 is the fact that the boundary has never been properly marked out. It is still possible to find houses which straddle the border. But in recent years...