In search of East India Company
Ours is a corporate age. And amid the fertile arguments on how to tame and transform today's corporation, there is a sense that current era of …
The politics of globalisation
POLITICIAN, economist and teacher all rolled into one --Johannes Pieter Pronk, better known as Jan Pronk, is in his second term as Netherlands …
China's reforms
Land use in China is in for irretrievable change. At the Third Plenum of the 16th Party Congress, held October 11-14, 2003, the world's biggest …
Herb dealers
In Himachal Pradesh's Kullu district is the Great Himalayan National Park. An eco-development project meant to benefit people of Tirthan and …
"We need to think about all of us as being citizens of the same world"
Joseph E Stiglitz helped create a new branch of economics - the Economics of Information. This earned him the Nobel Prize for economics in 2001. …
On the defensive at Cancun?
Recently Arun Jaitley identified agriculture and investment as the two main issues for next month's World Trade Organization ministerial …
Book review: Commercial cultivation of medicinal plants
It is an obvious business risk for a farmer to give up growing conventional crops that have assured returns and start growing medicinal plants. …
Software freedom
On Richard Stallman's personal homepage it says, "America means civil liberties. Patriotism is protecting them." Words that sum up the …
How to make the Commission for Sustainable Development work
It was only half a year ago, but events since the Johannesburg earth summit already make it seem like a distant event. The world has just seen an …
'Poor nations need Codex education'
Sanjay Dave, director of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), was recently elected chairperson of …
Peta's Pet
UK-based animal welfare group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals has been campaigning against Indian leather, alleging ill-treatment of …
How government is subverting Forest Rights Act
Does this official data betray a conspiracy? Only 1.6 per cent of the 2.9 million claims approved under the Forest Rights Act recognise community …
Just dump it
Acids of arsenic. Organo-mercury compounds. Batteries. Bristles of boars or hogs. More potent stuff: asbestos; slag dross; ash and residues of …
The Method Behind The Madness
When the official system learns to loot the official treasury, it also targets the natural estate, the biggest property of the modern state. Good …
India will soon play a major role
SIRPA Pietikainen, Finland's environment minister, says the world has quite a few things to learn from India, especially when it comes to …
Logjam
Whenever the Supreme Court pulls the trigger, why does it miss the target? Because governments like those of the seven Northeast states work …
Labour vs pollution
Ever since the Supreme Court (sc) ordered closure/relocation of polluting units in Delhi, which subsequently left nearly 50,000 people jobless,…
SEZ, how special?
Despite having burned its fingers with export processing zones, which mainly involved a number of substantial fiscal benefits, the government has …
Predicting the future
A severe shortage of medicinal plants and herbs threatens ISM. Cultivation may be the only way out. But currently medicinal plants that are …
Lost in plantation
Millions of growers and workers are in distress in Kerala, the plantation capital of India, as domestic and international prices of cash crops …
The small big polluter
Small-scale industries: Where regulations are meaningless and pollution control an unaffordable luxury. Can they leapfrog to cost-effective …
Cockpit
In early December 2007, the country prided itself on providing the world with a road map to check the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5NI.…
Long yarn
The cotton story is a tangled tale. In many parts of India, farmers are committing suicide. It's been a while Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and now …
Global food crisis: causes and implications for India
Is there a global crisis unravelling? World food reserves are at their lowest in 25 years and the prices of most food crops are at a record high. …
On the Edge
In Vietnam, an astonishing array of species, some never before encountered by humans, are being threatened by deforestation and an illegal trade …