The Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, JeeVika, a state-led women’s self-help group, is active since 2007. Based on primary research, this article highlights the potential role of the individual rural woman – the didi – in driving the social and economic shifts necessary for sustainable poverty reduction in rural Bihar. The term didi is used to address an elder sister. It embodies the notion of respect. Traditionally, the term has remained...

Does political corruption in India take place because there are always some civil servants who are willing to collaborate in it? Or, is the lure of post-retirement assignments a major reason for spinelessness of the senior civil servants? The affirmative answer to these questions has come from none other than bureaucrats themselves. Recently, they made these facts and many others -- usually, a subject of whisper in corridors of power...

EVEN though the Right to Information Act guarantees citizens their right to know and expose corruption in government offices, increasing attacks on RTI activists have put this most important right in jeopardy. The RTI Act was enacted after a long struggle by civil rights organisations. However, those who dare question the ways of the powers that be and expose them are eliminated in cold-blooded murders. The manner in which Amit...

The 2010 Seeds Bill that has been introduced in Parliament does address some of the major concerns in the aborted 2004 version, but strangely a number of important correctives – on regulation, consistency and punishment – that had been incorporated in the 2008 version (which lapsed in 2009) have now been modified or dropped altogether. What forces are pushing the government to act against the interests of India’s farmers? The third...

The farming community has welcomed chief minister M Karunanidhi's promise to supply free motors to small farmers. Cauvery Delta Farmers' Welfare Association secretary, S Ranganathan, said, "We appreciate the chief minister's gesture. I request the government to give submersible motors instead of mono-block ones. Also, a majority of small and marginal farmers don't have power connection. The state should look at the possibility of providing motors and power connections to...