Thirty-eight years after he set out on his mission to provide basic services and solutions to the problems of rural India, Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy from Rajasthan stands in the company of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar, noted economist Amartya Sen and author Chetan Bhagat as the Time magazine names him in the 2010 list of 100 people who most affect our world. It’s the work done by...

Communist and opposition parties in India are holding nationwide protests against rising food and fuel prices. The Communist-governed states of West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala are likely to be worst hit by the 12-hour strike called by the parties. Air and TRAIn services have been disrupted in West Bengal, and attendance in offices across the states is reported to be patchy. Food prices in India have risen by as much as...

Around two decades ago, Lawrence Summers, then World Bank chief economist, outraged many when he argued in an internal memo that the economic logic behind dumping toxic waste in low-wage countries was “impeccable”. His rationale: less developed countries are “under-polluted” and that “foregone earnings from increased morbidity and mortality” would be lesser in countries with lower wages. Cut to now and the thing to ask is: does India too believe...

Tamil Nadu's success in implementing the NREGA shows its commitment to social welfare, and the way ahead for other states. The share of women in the NREGA workforce has remained high from the beginning and is the highest in the country The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), enacted in 2005, has had a varied record so far. In many states, implementation has been lame (e.g. Bihar and Gujarat) or...

How did your trip to Niyamgiri and Vedanta’s mining project there come about? I’ve been a human rights, social justice and environment protection advocate for the last 30 years. I am the founder and chair of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation. I also love India and have a long relationship with this country. Many people know this. This is why Action Aid approached me to meet Sitaram Kulisika, a tribal...