Seven journalists from English and Hindi media from Delhi, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Haryana, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh have been selected for the prestigious Inclusive Media-UNDP Fellowships 2015. The fellows will take time off from routine journalism to spend time with rural/ marginalized communities to highlight their anxieties and concerns that require wider coverage and public attention. The fellowships cover costs of news gathering, logistics and incidental expenses up to Rs 150,000. The...

-The Statesman Koraput district is ahead of several others in meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goal, said May East, Scotland UN fellow, while addressing the Grow Your Own Food congress organised by Thread Siddharth village and Odisha Narisamaj at Kakirigumma here. This congress and Asian Ecovillage summit has been organised under the global discussions on how to implement these goals regionally and the discussion is also based on practical work conducted by...

-Down to Earth A few villages in Haryana successfully grow cotton amid widespread destruction of the crop by whitefly in the region LOOK HERE, the red pest you see is Chrysopa,” says an excited Manisha, while navigating through her cotton field in Haryana’s Nidana village. “A single Chrysopa, a carnivorous pest, eats around 125-150 whiteflies a day,” says the 24-year-old. Further ahead in her 0.8-hectare cotton plantation, she picks another plant leaf...

-The Guardian A not-for-profit group of small-scale farmers in India is succeeding where others have failed – what is the Fair Trade Alliance Kerala doing right? A walk through the annual Kerala seedfest, in the sultry heat of India’s Western Ghats, is like a walk through a proverbial garden of Eden; okra the size of a hand; deep purple coloured runner beans; 26 varieties of chillies from one village alone....

-The Indian Express There is evidence to suggest that with a few modifications, MGNREGA can dent poverty. There are few government programmes that excite as much passion as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). For advocates, it is a lifeline for the rural poor. For critics, it is a programme that distorts labour markets and does far more harm than good. In this partisan quicksand, it is hard to...