Citizens across 483 cities paid as much as Rs 44.77 crore in bribes, to get their land documents, electricity connections, a seat in a preferred college or register their dream home. And all this in just 21 months. Ipaidabribe, the only online forum for citizens to air their grievances when they grease palms, clocked 1 million hits as on May 31, 2012. Needless to say, it is the registration department...
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Heat kills 67 in West Bengal in a day
-The Times of India The relentless heat killed 67 more people across West Bengal on Tuesday, six of them in Kolkata, pushing up the death toll to 86 in just two days. Five prize horses also died despite water and ICE therapy. The Met department has warned that it will get worse as the wait for the monsoon stretches to mid-June. This is perhaps the highest number of heat-related deaths in the...
More »Guar: Farmers mint money from common man's food-Nitin Sethi
It used to be a dry and arid land legume grown by poor farmers in Rajasthan, Haryana , Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Till a few years back, it sold for as low as Rs 1,000 a quintal. Eaten either at home by farmers (some may remember it as guar ki phalli) or sold off for export to be used as a binding and thickening agent in edible products like ICE creams,...
More »World Bank gives evidence of corruption in highway projects-Dipak K Dash
The World Bank's allegations of fraud and corrupt practICEs in highway projects funded by the multilateral agency could just be the tip of the ICEberg. The Bank's report has an annexure of "collateral" evidence showing how contractors produced fake invoICEs and certificates to get advance from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The investigation team of World Bank's Institutional Integrity Unit tracked down three companies supplying aggregates (construction material) in Nepal...
More »Farmers transforming traditional agriculture with modern technology and desi jugaad-Sudipto Mundle
The chattering classes of urban India are engaged in animated discussions about Didi, scams, policy paralysis , faltering reforms and declining growth. Meanwhile, the farming classes, who haven't seen much reform since the Green Revolution 50 years ago, continue to combine bits of modern technology with their ingenious capacity for 'jugaad' in transforming traditional agriculture. Here are a few examples. The tractor displaced the bullock in ploughing and other farm operations....
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