With Mahatma Gandhi NREGA providing rich political dividends and letting  the government stay in course, the UPA-2 is stepping on the gas to multiply the mileage. On June 3, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will launch the National Rural Livelihoods Mission, a massive self-empowerment programme for rural India with focus on women, from a tribal district in Rajasthan, Banswara. But unlike the NREGS providing sustenance to rural India, the NRLM is to make...

In a major pro-farmer step, Gujarat Chief Minister narendra modi has decided to release water from the Narmada dam for a fortnight from June 1 to help farmers in the command areas in central and north Gujarat districts to undertake pre-sowing operations. Water Resources Minister Nitin Patel said on Saturday that the government would release 2,123 million cubic feet water from the Narmada dam and the benefit would accrue to thousands...

In a volte-face, social activist Anna Hazare, whose praise for Gujarat Chief Minister narendra modi had invited displeasure from his own supporters, on Thursday described the State as a “land of scams” where despite prohibition “more liquor flows than milk.” Mr. Hazare, who, along with fellow activists Swami Agnivesh and Arvind Kejriwal, was on a day's visit to the State for an “interaction” with the people to take inputs for the...

-Guardian   A budding interest in organic food offers farmers soaring incomes and higher yields, but critics say it's not the answer to India's fast-rising food demands India's struggling farmers are starting to profit from a budding interest in organic living. Not only are the incomes of organic farmers soaring – by 30% to 200%, according to organic experts – but their yields are rising as the pesticide-poisoned land is repaired through natural...

Expectations of changes resulting from a movement bereft of a clear political and ideological thrust would be far-fetched. FROM the vacuum left by mainstream politics to the confusions of ideology and practice emerging out of half-baked socio-political engagement – the political trajectory of Anna Hazare's “anti-corruption” satyagraha movement demanding early introduction of the Lokpal Bill in Parliament can well be summed up thus. The wide support that the movement received from...