Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
In Ladakh, the rest of India is referred to as down . Because, at no point in Leh district would you be less than about three kilometres above the mean sea level. This vast barren district is more than 45,000 square kilometre (sq km); it is perhaps India's largest and …
it is not often that riparian states are able to sink their differences and resolve a meandering water-sharing dispute. A breakthrough of this nature was achieved in the us on October 16, when Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, inked the Colorado River Water Delivery Agreement in Nevada. Despite the …
The residents of Teshie, a fishing town in the suburbs of Ghana's capital city of Accra, have announced their plans to boycott the elections scheduled for December 2004 if they do not get adequate water supply. "It is not that we will vote for this party or against that party; …
just one step outside any building of Venice is enough to drown Dario Camuffo in a sea of worries. Unlike those in power, he is unable to shut out a harsh reality
The stage is set for the December 1 assembly elections in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Coming after a healthy monsoon that was preceded by a severe dry spell, the polls offer parties the perfect platform for articulating their stand on matters concerning development. A Down To Earth (dte) …
even the heavy monsoon may not be able to drown out the political parties' poll pitch with regard to drought-relief work in Rajasthan. The two major contenders in the state
in the capital, a clean break seems to have been made with the rancorous mudslinging that is part and parcel of an election campaign. Instead, substantive issues are fuelling the verbal slugfests in the run-up to the assembly polls. Matters pertaining to participatory governance, development and the environment have taken …
madhya pradesh (mp) is one of the few states in India where development, or the lack of it, can have a direct bearing on the outcome of the elections. The ensuing assembly polls in the state are also being fought largely on this plank. On the one hand, chief minister …
A popular movement is gathering strength in Chhattisgarh against the privatisation of a stretch of the Sheonath river, which has deprived thousands of families of their livelihoods. "ALL the water as far as the eye can see belongs to me," said Kailash Soni, chief executive officer, Radius Water Limited, perched …
• QUID PRO QUO: As a part of a swap deal, the Pennsylvania-based PPL Corp has decided to sell three of its nine hydroelectric dams in Maine, USA, to an umbrella group of government agencies and private bodies. The alliance plans to either dismantle the structures or bypass them to …
"Twenty-four hours, seven-days-a-week water supply for urban India' fuels many a dream and much debate. Is 24/7 water supply attainable? An answer to this question was attempted at a workshop organised in Hyderabad, from September 23-24, 2003, by the Administrative Staff College of India (asci) and Water and Sanitation Program …
The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has stayed the granting of lease to the J K Industries-owned Central Pulp Mill to extract bamboo from Shoolpaneshwar Sanctuary in Bharuch district of Gujarat. The CEC was responding to an application filed by ARCH, a Gujarat-based non-governmental organisation. The lease violated the Supreme Court …
WATER is for flowing. When made to stagnate, it buzzes deafeningly of a culture of deliberate ignorance. Look at the misfortune of the people of picturesque western Rajasthan, today also the malaria country. Thirsty desert dwellers will probably never pray for a good monsoon, for it brings death by malaria! …
A federal court in California has barred the US navy from globally installing a new high-intensity sonar system. In contravention of several federal environmental laws, the system was found to be potentially fatal to whales, porpoises and fish. The lawsuit had been filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and …
Last week, on a visit to the cold desert of Ladakh, I learnt something important. It made me see the ongoing agricultural negotiations at the World Trade Organization's meet in Cancun, Mexico in a different light. I learnt that what the industrialised world is doing to our agriculture, Punjab and …
• An analysis of news clippings* on water published between February 2002 and February 2003 shows a definite pattern. Media emerges as a matchmaker which plans, creates and packages news to catch the middle-class imagination • The two most popular subjects of reportage on water are scarcity of water, and …
