While the state has to act transparently in awarding tenders, it has more elbow room in the matter Though the government is not perceived as a good business partner, yet its contracts are attractive on many counts. There is more elbow room for making profit. Therefore, agreements for infrastructure and services are coveted. Many of them, however, land in the court because the government has much more leeway in the selection...

As agriculture universities transform local varieties into genetically modified Bt brinjal, questions of ownership arise. Indians call it the brinjal. Other countries know it as the eggplant or aubergine. It is widely used the world over and every cuisine from the Chinese to the African has an encyclopaedia of recipes that establishes its popularity as a vegetable of daily use. And no vegetable has hogged the headlines as much as the...

CITIES MAKE one simple promise to newcomers: Sacrifice yourself to me and your children shall prosper. This promise drew Ahmed Raza, a small-time wrestler from an Uttar Pradesh village and millions like him to the capital of newly-independent India. Raza kept his part of the bargain, yet half a century later, his daughter was pushed out of the city her father helped build, the only home she has known. “I...

It is to counter the Danish draft that proposed tough action by developing countries Call for setting up of a Global Climate Fund The four emerging economies — Brazil, South Africa, India and China — have recommended the establishment of a mechanism to develop and transfer environment-friendly technology to developing countries, remove barriers in technology transfer and appropriately address issues of intellectual property rights. The BASIC draft proposed by these four developing...

HAS GREEN REVOLUTION FAILED INDIA'S POOR? Green Revolution Vs Rain-fed Farming OVERVIEW: Of late India’s fabled Green Revolution has come under severe attack. Many development thinkers believe that it has unfairly skewed India’s agriculture policy in favour of the farmers whose land is already or potentially covered under irrigation. The basic criticism is that the Green Revolution has been largely irrelevant for India’s 60 per cent cultivable land which is un-irrigated. These...