As environment minister Jairam Ramesh gets close to deciding the fate of $12 billion Posco’s steel plant in Orissa, civil society pressure from India and around the world is mounting to scrap the project. Around 40 business schools professors have urged Ramesh to look into the dubious data produced by Orissa to convince importance of the Posco’s project of steel plant and a port. The professors, who analysed reports submitted by different...

Facing heat from the Andhra Pradesh (AP) government, microfinance institutions (MFIs) acting under a banner called MFI Network (MFIN) have agreed to adopt corrective measures to address concerns raised by the state government. Coming up with a 15-point corrective measures statement, MFIs have agreed to bring down the interest rates to 24% initially to the borrowers of AP only. “It’s an initial decision and our CEOs across other states will be discussing...

A meticulous study of the agrarian relations in three villages. ONE of our senior sociologists once drew my attention to the distinction between economics and other social sciences. Other social sciences – sociology and anthropology, for instance – he said, pay a great deal of attention to gathering primary data and interpreting them, whereas economics relies on secondary data for its analysis. This is, to a large extent, a fair...

After creating a huge controversy by claiming that foreign patients who were treated in India developed antibiotic resistance, authors of the superbug New Delhi metallo-B-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) bacteria study published in the United Kingdom-based medical journal The Lancet now say that poor sanitation and unregulated antibiotic use presented an immense challenge and should be of great concern to the Indian health authorities and the World Health Organisation. Responding to queries in the...

The obnoxious practice will continue in one form or the other, as long as the government and society treat certain so-called menial jobs as the preserve of one community. On November 1, a unique journey will come to a ceremonious end in Delhi. Earlier this month, five bus loads of men and women headed out from different corners of the country with one slogan on their lips: honour and liberation for...