The Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, JeeVika, a state-led women’s self-help group, is active since 2007. Based on primary research, this article highlights the potential role of the individual rural woman – the didi – in driving the social and economic shifts necessary for sustainable poverty reduction in rural Bihar. The term didi is used to address an elder sister. It embodies the notion of respect. Traditionally, the term has remained...

The legacy of Industrial Agriculture With the world population passing the 6 billion mark last October, the debate over our ability to sustain a fast growing population is heating up. Biotechnology advocates in particular are becoming very vocal in their claim that there is no alternative to using genetically modified crops in agriculture if "we want to feed the world". Actually, that quote might be true. It depends what they mean...

Amipur may be a small dot along the national highway from Patna to Nawada, but its ambitions are big. In the 50-odd households in the village, sparsely populated and rife with an uneasy quiet, most men have left for work outside Bihar. Siyaram Chauhan is the one who returned. He was rescued last month by the state government officials from a brick kiln in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich where he worked as...

The Union Environment Ministry has formed a fresh panel to look into the alleged violation of forest rights of tribals in Niyamgiri hills, where it has held up clearance to the bauxite mining project of Vedanta Resources. The Ministry, in a notification on Tuesday, announced a four-member panel to be headed by NC Saxena from National Advisory Council (NAC). S Parasuraman from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Promode Kant and Amita...

Says India will be one of the biggest beneficiaries ‘I am trying to bridge gap between academic work and policy making' ‘Need for honest attempt for interflow of ideas from think tanks and use them in policy making' Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday said that India cannot accept any international agreement without equity and insisted on equitable access to global atmospheric space. “This is a matter of survival,” he told a press...