In the long speeches made at the opening ceremony of the CW games, every important individual, department or institution that made a contribution, was acknowledged. Did anyone hear a word about the workers who made these world-class games possible? Maybe it was just a slip or maybe it was not considered necessary. Anyway, the workers were not there for the speeches, having been driven out of the capital just a...

Interlinking of rivers has the potential to increase India's arable land by 35 million hectares (mha), Minister of State for Water Resources Vincent H. Pala said Tuesday. Harvesting flood waters to recharge of ground water would increase the availability by about 36 million cubic metres, he added. Speaking at the conference on water organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, Pala said: 'India has to create an irrigation potential of more...

All speakers addressing the main session of the World Water Week in Sweden during 5-11 September were presented with a beautifully wrapped bottle of Tap water! Yes, you heard right: Tap water from Stockholm. It is a symbol of achievement that the Swedes love to flaunt—and rightly so. It is also the best gift the Indian government can give to all Indians in general, and particularly those 500-odd million that live...

Jagdishji Vaghela is one of hundreds of thousands of farmers standing in the way of India's breakneck economic expansion. Determined not to give up his land for an industrial park in the western state of Gujarat, the 55-year-old farmer scorns at talk of how the benefits of industrialization in Asia's third-largest economy will trickle down to people like him. Despite a nearby plant producing what is touted as the world's cheapest car,...

Dams may have been the temples of modern India to Jawaharlal Nehru, but Uttarakhand’s BJP government has stopped work on a hydel project because priests and devotees fear it might submerge a Kali temple. The government’s surprise move on Thursday on the 400MW Alakananda project is steeped in local politics and coincides with a countrywide debate on development-versus-environment. But it also highlights how easy it has become to block power projects in...