The rapid growth of global markets has not seen the parallel development of social and economic institutions to ensure balanced, inclusive and sustainable growth. Although we may not have yet reached “the end of history,” globalisation has brought us closer to “the end of geography” as we have known it. The compression of time and space triggered by the Third Industrial Revolution —roughly, since 1980 — has changed our interactions with...

Chairman of the expert team of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) Naresh Dayal said on Friday that prima facie there was no large-scale destruction of forest land for the controversial hill city project, Lavasa. Speaking to journalists on the third and final day of inspection, Mr. Dayal said that contradictory to the allegations made by social activists Medha Patkar and Anna Hazare, Pune's water supply would not be affected...

If home minister P Chidambaram’s recent letter to West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is any indication, it has taken the Union home ministry seven years to realise that arming civilians to fight Naxalites is a bad idea. How much longer will it take for them to realise that the current paramilitary-based approach in Chhattisgarh is similarly bound to fail? From 2003 onwards, the home ministry has followed a policy of...

Nearly 100 days after the nondescript Tembhali in Nandurbar district was swamped with promises of development, nothing has changed for the better in the tribal village. For over a week in September, the tribal village basked in public and official attention. Prime minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi landed to launch the ambitious Unique Identity (UID) card — Aadhaar — project amid great fanfare. Great promises to improve the...

In a boost to rural road network in the state, the Centre today approved a state government proposal to construct 2,005km of roads with Rs 548.58 crore, and 49 bridges to connect these roads with another Rs 96.09 crore, under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). The decision was taken by a high-powered committee set up by the Union rural development ministry to monitor PMGSY. The meeting in New Delhi...