Every afternoon at about four, a slight woman named Runi slips out of the cramped, airless room that she shares with her husband and their sixteen children. She skirts the drainage ditch in front of the building, then walks toward the pile of hardened dung cakes that people in this slum on the edge of the northeastern Indian city of Patna use for fuel. Dressed in a bright-yellow sari shot...

While renewable energy was always considered more desirable from the point of view of environment protection, its importance has increased several times in these times of climate change. Solar energy is particularly seen as a very promising source in energy planning for the future in tropical countries like India. Interest in realising the potential of solar energy is fast increasing and organisations which have been pioneers in solar energy are...

Salaries of MPs, MLAs and bureaucrats have seen huge hikes recently but for workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), wages have remained static ever since the scheme was launched five years ago. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot recently announced a Diwali bonus for the government employees in the state. "For Diwali we have decided to give bonus equal to 30 days salary. This will cost us Rs. 223 crore...

The Centre and states may vie to take credit for the MNREGS, but when it comes to footing the Bill for the job guarantee scheme, the story is different. Asking the Centre to notify new, revised wage rates “at the earliest” is, interestingly, a Congress-ruled state—Rajasthan. It also happens to be the home state of minister for rural development C P Joshi. Rajasthan principal secretary CS Rajan last week sent a letter...

In its zeal to make low-priced food available to as many as possible, the majority on the National Advisory Council may deal a mortal blow to farmers and output, warn farmer groups. The proposal to distribute low-priced foodgrain to 80 per cent of the rural population has nothing in it to incentivise cultivation. Vijay Jawandhia of the Shetkari Sangathana says the least the NAC could have done was to recommend that...