-Down to Earth Eighteen months and Rs 4,275.31 crores later, not even 0.1 per cent of the project could be completed "By the time the nation completes 75 years of its Independence (2022), every family will have a pucca house with Water connection, toilet facilities, 24x7 electricity supply and access." It was May 2014 and the Modi-led government had just come to power. A year later, during the presentation of Annual...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com The thirteenth anniversary issue of Civil Society with the Hall of Fame 2016 was out from the press and I had gone to Anupam Mishra’s home to give him a copy. He looked at the picture of Uncle Moosa on the cover and said: “Yeh aadmi apne chhote kaam se kitna kush hai. Iska kurta bhi khush hai!” It was Anupam Mishra’s trademark humour, delivered with his customary mellifluous touch. But...

-Business Today If you want to really get smart with Water, the first thing you should realise is that in most parts of India, Water is abundantly available. But you also need to recall what a man named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had once said: "There is enough in this world for everyone's need, but not for anyone's greed". Today, what Gandhiji advised is being termed a "paradigm shift" in Water management. The...

-CounterView.net A new report, “Promise and Performance – Ten Years of the Forest Rights Act (FRA)”, released at a recent national convention in Delhi, has revealed that less than 5% of rights out of a total of over 200 million tribals and other traditional forest dwellers for about 34.6 million hectares (ha) in India has been so far recognized. The report, released as part of the Community Forest Rights Learning and Advocacy...

-TheWire.in In November, after a very cogent public speech on India’s rivers, he was completely exhausted and in pain. But that he came anyway showed his dedication. “I need to go and pay respect to the people fighting for India’s rivers” insisted the weak Gandhian, barely able to walk, on November 28. In his speech at the India Rivers Week’s inaugural ceremony on that day, Anupam Mishra, with his characteristically wry humour,...