-The Hindu Why did the West Bengal girls’ welfare scheme win the UN Public Service Award this year? In 2014, Rehana (name changed), a 15-year old from a school in West Bengal’s Sunderbans region, was rescued from a red light area in Delhi. The Class IX student had been ensnared by traffickers who then sold her off in Kolkata. After being brought back, the local administration and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) re-enrolled...
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Tiger reserves: Economic and environmental win-win -D Balasubramanian
-The Hindu The headline in a recent PTI report “Saving 2 tigers gives more value than Mangalyaan”’ was intriguing, since it said that saving two tigers yields a capital benefit of Rs. 520 crores, while Mangalyaan cost us Rs. 450 crores. The headline was both exciting and hurtful. Excited by it, I contacted Professor Madhu Verma of the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, and she shared with me both...
More »In hunt for big sharks, livelihood of the poor becomes small change
-The Hindu With little cash in hand, small traders and shopkeepers are unable to keep their businesses running Surendar’s move from Bihar to Perambalur in the heart of Tamil Nadu in search of a livelihood has turned sour over the past few days. A school dropout, Surendar, who made a living selling pani-poori from a cart in this town, has seen his business plummet since the November 8 demonetisation announcement. “Everyone brings...
More »Demonetisation cripples fishing industry in Bengal -Suvojit Bagchi
-The Hindu 'The buyers are tendering Rs. 1,000 notes, which is difficult for us to accept' North 24 Parganas: By about 4 a.m. all shops – about 170 – were open on both sides of an unkempt asphalt road. The shops that were selling fish at a wholesale rate were chock-a-block by 5 a.m.. But many of them were not engaging with the trading. They were small rural fish farmers and sellers, big...
More »Blinded by higher yields
-The Pioneer Local crop varieties are resilient but ignored Recent reports that well-known plant scientist Debal Deb has found a traditional rice variety in West Bengal that contains silver and has medicinal properties, has aroused public interest. Who knew that a rice grain, or for that matter any plant variety, could naturally assimilate the precious metal from the soil? The discovery is a humbling reminder of the many mysteries that nature continues...
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