-Economic and Political Weekly A categorical distinction is facing rough weather--that between urban and rural. If we take just agriculture, there is so much of the outside world that comes in not just as external markets but as external inputs. Further, many of our villages barely qualify as rural if we were to take occupation alone. So the earlier line that separated the farmer from the worker in towns is slowly...
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Thought it was impossible to grow pesticide-free food? These villagers from Kozhikode prove you wrong -Dhanya Sukumaran
-The News Minute Kerala: A group of 101 families has created a small yet strong challenge to the idea that farming requires modern science to thrive. Since 2006, Vengeri, a village in Kozhikode district, has revolutionized everyday living and has set an example by not only managing sustainable organic farming, challenging genetically modified crops and also efficient waste management practices. Thanks to Niravu, a residential association of 100 odd homes, today Vengeri is...
More »If we hobble Right to Information, then we hobble India’s democracy -Sanjoy Narayan
-Hindustan Times It took nearly 15 years for India's Right to Information Act (RTI) to finally become a law in 2005 after the late VP Singh (who was India's prime minister briefly) first stressed the importance of a law that would give citizens the right to seek and get information. But now that landmark act could become toothless in far less time than that. If that happens, it will be a...
More »P Sainath, rural reporter, interviewed by Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies
-Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies World-renowned journalist P. Sainath has returned to Princeton to teach two courses, beginning this week, in the Program for South Asian Studies. The former rural affairs editor of The Hindu and award-winning "reporter" - he prefers the term to journalist - has devoted his career to telling the stories of India, uncovering the truth of social problems, rural affairs, poverty and the aftermath of...
More »Enhancing PESA: The Unfinished Agenda -Kamal Nayan Choubey
-Economic and Political Weekly Amendments proposed by the previous Congress-led union government to the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 had the potential of improving upon this progressive legislation. Unfortunately, with its successor pursuing different priorities, the possibility of the amendments being passed remains rather low. Kamal Nayan Choubey (kamalnayanchoubey@gmail.com) is with the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. A bill for an amendment to the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas)...
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