Have you heard of the Yangtze River Dolphin? For the longest time, it used to be found along 1,700 kilometres of the middle and lower reaches of the mighty Chinese river. The Baiji, as it is known, was white finned, a little over two metres long, had poor eyesight and relied mainly on sonar for navigation. A few decades ago, as populations along the river grew, as shipping traffic rose,...

Degraded soils, depleting groundwater, and chemical pesticides are playing havoc, placing agriculture in terrible distress. I haven’t forgotten that night. Sitting with a group of farmers in a village in Ludhiana district in Punjab, at the height of the Green Revolution, a farmer showed me a bag of fertiliser that he brought from the market. “Why are you showing me this bag”, I asked. “Wait”, he said, and began to open the...

This is your empowerment, Gehlot tells women Fighting the ignominy of being among the worst States in the country when it comes to mother mortality rate (MMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR), the Rajasthan Government on Monday launched a major initiative to protect newborns and mothers. Thousands of people including a large number of women turned up in this tehsil town to Witness the launch, which Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot...

-The Telegraph   The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti and the All Assam Students Union today launched statewide protests against the movement of turbines meant for lower Subansiri hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh. Two Bangladeshi vessels, carrying the NHPC turbines, which had remained stranded for months at Bongshichar in Dhubri district following anti-dam protests, had yesterday set sail for Jogighopa in Bongaigaon district to offload the consignment. In Guwahati, about 200 KMSS members, led by...

A report from a sample survey of the functioning of the public distribution system in 12 villages in two districts in Orissa, a state usually associated with a poor PDS. While there are errors in exclusion and inclusion of households covered, there has been a vast improvement in operation of the PDS; below the poverty line households seem to be receiving their entitlements. The households also express a strong preference...