Despite a 25 percent deficit in rainfall, a village in Udaipur still manages to fill up its water tanks to the brim. WHEN HE first visited Dilwara, on the outskirts of Udaipur, Andre Ling, then a student from England, saw the village’s only pond, surrounded by filthy stumps of limestone and mud, disappear due to rank neglect over two summers. It was 2003 and Rajasthan had recorded a 45 percent...

Five farmers committed suicide from the Vidarbha region of Maharastra within the last two days of the month of August, 2009. The farmers who committed suicides belonged to the districts for which special relief package was being announced recently. According to a press note circulated by the Vidarbha People’s Movement Committee, within the last 48 hours of August, farmers were forced to commit suicide as they faced crop failures owing...

TNN/ MANGALORE: Many fishermen and farmers’ organizations in Mangalore have taken umbrage at a move by the Union government to sign a free-trade agreement with Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The organizations - Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS), National Fish Workers Forum, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Karnataka Karavali Sampradayika Nadadoni Meenugarara Okkoota - will register their protest on October 2. K Yadav Shetty, general secretary, KPRS, said on...

Many grassroots activists in Chhattisgarh are circulating a note among all democratic elements in the country to raise the demand of de-escalation of conflict between the security forces and the adivasis. They want lakhs of displaced adivasis of Dantewada be allowed to return to their villages and rebuild their ravaged agrarian and forest based economies. However, this time they also want an assurance from the state government on right to...

WASHINGTON, September 15, 2009&NDAsh;Developing countries can shift to lower-carbon paths while promoting development and reducing poverty, but this depends on financial and technical assistance from high-income countries, says a new World Bank report released today. High-income countries also need to act quickly to reduce their carbon footprints and boost development of alternative energy sources to help tackle the problem of climate change. World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change,...