The special meeting of Chief Ministers convened by the Centre indicates that food price inflation remains worrisome. But at the meet the problem was underplayed and little of substance emerged.  With food price inflation still running at close to 18 per cent, the UPA government at the Centre has been forced to recognise that it constitutes a problem that deserves as much or more attention than the objective of achieving...

Though many migrant workers from south Madhya Pradesh have died of the incurable workplace disease called silicosis contracted from inhaling quartz dust in stone crushing factories in Gujarat, the public health system has carried out no comprehensive survey to identify the disease, which is often passed off as tuberculosis, many factories have not installed anti-pollution systems, and the NHRC has been sitting on the case since 2006 “He kept coughing…became more...

From Bihar to America, via rickshaw. That’s the feat Irfan Alam has pulled off, winning an invite from President Barack Obama for his work with rickshaw-pullers and proving that Lalu Prasad isn’t the only Bihari worth a toast for his business acumen. The 35-year-old IIM Ahmedabad graduate, who has redesigned and smartened up rickshaws and helped boost the pullers’ earnings and dignity, is one of 79 “unique” entrepreneurs from across the world...

DINDORI: While an interface between tradition and technology often leads to the surfacing of conflict-inducing fault lines, just sometimes the two integrate seamlessly to alter lifestyles of those who experience them. One such example is German technological assistance changing the lives of Baiga tribals of Dindori district. Tribals of the Chhapra village in the district, who still trade through the barter system, have achieved a great degree of self-sufficiency through...

Twenty-five years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, one of the biggest industrial disasters in history, the country’s pollution watchdog has found huge quantities of chemicals in underground water and soil in a 2.4-km radius of the Union Carbide factory.  During a study of 390 tonnes of toxins abandoned in the now-closed factory, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) discovered high levels of chloroform and benzene in underground water, mostly near...