As agriculture-related activities come to a standstill with the summer season reaching its peak, around 1,300 labourers and farmers in the rural areas have registered themselves for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The MGNREGS guarantees job for 100 days with daily remuneration. As many as 81 projects have been initiated in Pune district and the administration is planning to commence at least 100 more projects in the...

A LEAFY VILLAGE in Kerala, Pathanpara, never found access to India’s electricity grid. That is why for the last several years, this village has been generating its own electricity. Raju, a dhoti-clad cashew nut farmer, operates Pathanpara’s five kilowatt (KW) micro hydropower plant. He lives in the village and earns a salary of Rs 2,250, paid by the People’s Electricity Committee (PEC). The power generated is shared equally by the village,...

“Declare State GM organisms-free on the lines of M.P., Bihar” Farmer groups here on Sunday demanded that Rajasthan be declared a genetically modified (GM) organisms-free State on the lines of Madhya Pradesh, which has recently decided to prohibit any environmental release, including field trials, of GM seeds and crops in view of their safety and impact on human beings and environment still being in doubt. Madhya Pradesh is the second State in...

The government may be facing an unprecedented barrage of corruption charges and an embarrassing Lokpal bill stir, but India Corruption Study, 2010, reveals that there is a marked decline in the percentage of people who feel graft has increased since 2005. Centre for Media Studies has conducted the survey. Rural population across 12 states — three of them Congress-ruled — was surveyed. The foreword has been written by NAC member Aruna...

They have all been killed quietly, leaving Devda just with 20 girls compared to 300 boys Avon Kanwar lives in fear. She is scared her food may be poisoned. She is afraid to sleep at night because she suspects she may be strangled. Avon, eight years old, is convinced her parents will kill her. “I don’t know where she hears such things,”says her father Sangh Singh, “We stopped killing girls...