Popular perception of the state of economy, as recorded by the CNN-IBN-CNBC-TV18 State of the Nation Poll in association with Forbes India conducted by the CSDS, confront the "aam admi" government with many reasons to worry. Unlike corruption, the message is not loud here. Years of survey research have demonstrated that Indians tend to be positive and optimistic when it comes to their economic conditions. One needs to look at...

Four farmers were killed in police firing as a protracted farmers’ agitation against an urban water-supply project in Pune district turned violent on Tuesday afternoon. Several farmers and 20 policemen were injured, two of them seriously. More than 300 protesters were rounded up. A strong crackdown restored traffic on the blocked Pune-Mumbai expressway, Pune rural police said. Around 1.30pm, more than 400 villagers, agitating for years against an urban water supply project they...

An RTI activist in Manipur’s Imphal East district has been ostracised inhis own village for raising question over the construction of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan school building. Th Biren Singh (55) of Wakhong village fearing the eviction of the village school buildingin future if constructed in the unauthorised land, filed an RTI application enquiring whether the school building was constructed within the school’s authorised (patta) land or not. “Now, the villagers who were...

-The United Nations   Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged the world to recognize the right of indigenous peoples to control their intellectual property, saying they needed help to protect, develop and receive fair compensation for their cultural heritage and traditional knowledge. “Indigenous peoples face many challenges in maintaining their identity, traditions and customs, and their cultural contributions are at times exploited and commercialized, with little or no recognition,” Mr. Ban said in a...

City-based NGO Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group, in association with other forums and NGOs have helped the tribal populations in the Biligiri Rangaswamy temple sanctuary, also a tiger reserve, in Karnataka, to come up with an alternative community-based plan for conservation, livelihood and management of forest. So far, out of around 62 settlements, 25 in this protected area have got the community forest rights. According to experts, similar processes should also be...