In 25 years, the Narmada Bachao Andolan has introduced an alternative development discourse in India. ON the full moon night in October, hundreds of people from all over India gathered at Bhilgaon, one of the many tribal villages in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, in the foothills of the Satpura mountain range and on the banks of the river Narmada. The place resounded with jingles, revolutionary folk songs and strains of...

Could India's mock war on poverty ever turn real? India became independent 63 years ago. Since Independence the country has implemented 10 five year plans and a few Annual Plans. Currently the 11th Plan is being executed. Efforts made during the last six decades have resulted in the modernisation of a stagnant economy and India's emergence as a major industrial power. This period also witnessed remarkable progress in agricultural production. But India...

In a major revision of the policy for rehabilitation & resettlement of landowners framed in 2005, the Haryana government has almost doubled the land acquisition rates in Gurgaon and substantially increased those in other parts of the state. Announcing this at a Press conference here today, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that Haryana has been divided into five zones - instead of the earlier three - for the purpose...

To maintain projects to clean the river and restore its environmental health Centre to consider Uttarakhand's demand for free power in compensation for scrapped projects Conservation Action Plan approved for Gangetic dolphin, the national aquatic animal States through which the Ganga flows will soon be given additional funding to operate and maintain projects to clean the river and restore its environmental health. However, States lobbied for more aid and free power to those...

Last week's column, “The plight of Dalits and the news media” (October 25, 2010), has generated a lively and interesting response from several readers. The column was about the prioritisation of the tasks before the National Commission for the Scheduled Castes (NCSC) by its new Chairman, P.L. Punia (not P.J. Punia as erroneously mentioned in the column.) The concern of most who wrote was over the failure of successive governments...