I read Aman Sethi's piece on the Saranda Development Plan (“Nine months on, police camps sole development in Saranda plan”, June 4) with great interest but with greater anguish. Before I deal with his main charge — that private mining interests are behind the SDP — I want to lay out what the SDP is all about. It is the first systematic experiment in combining a security-oriented and development-focussed approach...

-The Economist UNDER a thatched roof, lit by a full, yellow moon, Shiv Kumari explains how she and her five children survive. She is a widow, 30 years old, living in a home made of packed mud. She works the nearby fields, draws a small pension, some food rations and gets a few days of paid labour each month from a rural make-work scheme. Semra village, made up of 70 households, most...

-The Deccan Herald   Diddalli, a hamlet under Channayanakote grama panchayat, lacks even basic infrastructure facilities. The labourers who planted teakwood trees under Neduthopu yojane of the forest department at Devamacchi forest in 1972 were shifted to Nagapura and Channayanakote in 1982. The forest department had alloted two acres of land for the labourers who settle down in the new place. However, Diddalli does not boast of anything that a civilised society can be proud...

-The Deccan Herald   Here drinking water too is a luxury   Diddalli is a small hamlet in Channayanakote Gram Panchayat limits, devoid of basic infrastructure facilities.  The labourers who planted teak wood trees under Neduthopu yojana of the forest department in Devamacchi forest in 1972, were shifted to Nagapura and Channayanakote in 1982. The forest department had earmarked two acre land for the labourers to settle down. However, Diddalli does not boast of anything...

Eureka Forbes, known for its water purifiers, is now out to banish darkness from Indian villages with its solar lighting products. Its Eurodiya brand of solar bulbs are made with US-based Nokero (short for ‘no kerosene’) that makes affordable solar bulbs, panels and chargers for communities that have no access to electricity. Over 85,000 villages (or 63% of rural India) are without electricity. Eurodiya is expected to be an alternative to...