With a huge amount of funds riding on various rural development programmes, the Manmohan Singh government has now turned its sights on reforming and strengthening the panchayati raj system. And the task is going to start at the level of the gram panchayats, which are the vehicle for the implementation of most of the rural development projects. The ministry of rural development and panchayati raj institutions is presently in the...

On the eve of a decision on the draft food security law by the Sonia Gandhi headed National Advisory Council, the government unveiled a blueprint for a complete revamp of the public distribution system, or PDS. State food ministers on Tuesday approved time bound changes in the PDS to plug the weaknesses in the system to create the appropriate delivery mechanism for meeting legal commitments of the proposed law. The...

In normal circumstances, E. Altrin, a fisherman from Rameswaram, would have sold the juvenile lobsters, each weighing 50 gm, in the market after the catch. That is no longer the case. Nowadays, whenever he gets the juveniles he shifts them to the floating cage in the sea. “After four months in the cages, these juveniles grow in size and weigh 200 gm. If I sell the juveniles I will get only...

Bhisham Singh Yadav, father of the groom, is stressed. His rented Lexus got stuck behind a bullock cart. He has hired a truck to blast Hindi pop, but it is too big to maneuver through his village. At least his grandest gesture, evidence of his upward mobility, is circling overhead. The helicopter has arrived. Mr. Yadav, a wheat farmer, has never flown, nor has anyone else in the family. And...

Biotech technicians neither have the knowledge of gene ecology nor the expertise in multiple disciplines.    After the minister of environment Jairam Ramesh announced a moratorium on Bt brinjal, article after article in the media has denounced the decision, saying such decisions should be left to ‘scientists.’ The issue is however not science vs anti-science. It is reductionist science vs systems science. The moratorium took into account the best of science. Many...