As the commons come under increasing assault, academics, practitioners and policymakers come together to devise ways to protect shared resources On a cold January night in Hyderabad, a fortnight ago, Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Environment and Forests, was led to an open-air dinner by folk drummers and body-painted tiger dancers as an appreciative audience of international academics and grassroots workers cheered and milled around him. Ramesh had become the toast of...

The ministries of environment and coal may still be bickering over the classification of ' go' and ' no- go' areas for mining , but an International Labour Organisation ( ILO)- funded report on India's indigenous population claims that more than half the country's mineral wealth is obtained by violating the rights of tribals. 'India and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples', a report prepared by the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact with...

When it comes to paid news, there's silence because, while Ashok Chavan might stand accused, it is the media who are on trial. The year 2010 saw journalists, their associations and unions hold more conferences and seminars on one professional issue than any other. And it wasn't on the Wage Board or the Radia tapes. Hundreds of journalists across the country attended these meetings. Dozens stood up and spoke of their...

A recent newspaper report noted that the Union Government had gazetted the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2011 and received strong criticism from organisations that work for protecting coastal ecosystems and fight for the rights and welfare of fisherfolk. About 20 organisations working in the field of protecting fishermen's rights and lawyers backing them have taken strong exception to the notification. This is on the ground that the new notification,...

Five years is a short period but the achievements are awesome. About ten crore poorest of India’s poor have opened personal accounts in banks or post offices; people demand work because it is their right; it has already regenerated ponds and water bodies and other community assets in thousands of villages; men and women get equal wages for equal work and ordinary people have a right to audit development works...