Rural India is not just embracing mobile telephony, it is also warming up to the internet. According to the latest report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the number of people from rural regions accessing internet rose 73 per cent in the last two years. The report, ‘Internet in Rural India’, prepared by IAMAI and the Indian Market Research Bureau, states rural India has 38 million claimed internet users...

-The Economic Times New discoveries of natural resources in several African countries - including Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and Mozambique - raise an important question: will these windfalls be a blessing that brings prosperity and hope, or a political and economic curse, as has been the case in so many countries? On average, resource-rich countries have done even more poorly than countries without resources. They have grown more slowly, and with greater inequality...

-The Hindu An anthology of independent evaluations of MGNREGA shows that it has provided income security, improved health, narrowed the gender gap and created useful assets   In the midst of the debates that prevail in this country over the feasibility of the world’s largest public works programme, the MGNREGA Sameeksha — an anthology of independent research studies and analysis on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, from 2006-2012 — is...

-The Economic Times Rural India is getting fast on the information superhighway. Rural India has 38 million claimed internet users and 31 million active internet users, according to a report on 'Internet in Rural India' by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB. The penetration of claimed internet users in rural India has grown from 2.6% in 2010 to 4.6% in 2012, a CAGR of 73%. On the other...

-The Hindu In her article in The Hindu, (“Nailing the lie of the land,” Op-Ed, August 23, 2012), Ms Medha Patkar has forcefully and with reason argued against the devastating consequences of land acquisition. Without getting into the concerns raised with regard to the larger “development model” we would like to respond to the issues she has raised with the proposed Bill on Land Acquisition which seem predicated on an understanding...