Among the several resolutions passed on Thursday by the 9th conference of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) in Kanpur, one of the most important ones was on the need to regulate microfinance institutions (MFIs), which are exercising an iron grip on poor women debtors in several States of the country. The resolution drew attention to the “spate of suicides as a result of the harassment and strong-arm tactics employed...
More »SEARCH RESULT
A Deadly Misdiagnosis by Michael Specter
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...
More »Orissa bans fishing in coastal areas for seven months by Hemant Kumar Rout
Orissa government has imposed a seven-month ban on fishing for the nesting and Breeding season of Olive Ridley turtles. This will affect the livelihood of at least three lakh fishermen across the state. Fish eaters will have to pay more for sea fishes or will have to satisfy themselves with sweet water fishes. The ban will be in force along 120 km sea coast in six districts of Balasore, Bhadrak,...
More »FAO launches 2nd State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture report
The genetic diversity of the plants that we grow and eat and their “wild relatives” could be lost forever, threatening future food security, unless special efforts are stepped up to not only conserve but also utilize them, especially in developing countries. This is one of the key messages of the second report on The State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, launched today by FAO. The...
More »Farmers, activists oppose Eastern India Green Revolution project by Vinaya Deshpande
“Punjab has suffered only debt, serious illnesses and polluted and scanty water sources” Appealing to the farmers and policy-makers to not emulate the Punjab model of Green Revolution, some farmers from Punjab said here on Sunday that the revolution had completely ruined the State. “Punjab is now called the cancer capital of India. The Green Revolution has given farmers only three things: debt, serious illnesses and polluted and scanty water sources,”...
More »