Going by the text of the National Biotechnology Regulatory Bill 2008, the government of India and specifically, the department of biotechnology (DBT), have a clear disdain for the need to conserve biodiversity, or allow state governments to exercise their constitutional rights over their agriculture. (Letter)

The overflowing Kosi had, as of end-August, wreaked destruction on more than three million people living in north and east Bihar. A field visit reports on the misery of the affected, haphazard rescue efforts and criminal exploitation of the uprooted. The immediate task is to improve relief operations and then provide support to the displaced who will not be able to find work until the 2009 kharif season. A blame game is now in operation, but since the early 1960s whichever the party in power, the people of Bihar have been affected by official apathy towards the embankments on the Kosi.

India

The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front government
in West Bengal had handled the acquisition of land from the peasants for the Nano car project of Tata Motors at Singur in a hopelessly insensitive manner. The Trinamool Congress, the main opposition party, has ever since tried to gain all it can from this failing of the communists. The CPI(M), in its anxiety to pursue industrialisation at all costs, should have known better than to be more concerned about the incentives for private industry than about livelihoods and asset security for the local populace. (Editorial)

The breaching of embankments in the upstream areas of the Kosi river, in Kusaha village in Nepal, has resulted in yet another round of floods in north Bihar, in the districts of Supaul, Saharsa, Araria, Madhepura, Katihar and Purnia. The disaster this time is much larger than usual. More than three million people have been affected and a million have been forced to seek higher ground. (Editorial)

The Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 1992 attempted to curb the efforts of baby food manufacturers to undermine breastfeeding and was further amended in 2003 to plug loopholes. However, public-private health partnerships are now found to be advocating nutrition policies aimed at helping food multinationals increase their markets. A stronger legislation is thus needed to fight this practice.

The analysis presented in this paper shows that in water-scarce regions of India, run-off harvesting does not offer any potential for groundwater recharge or improving water supplies at the basin scale. The issues are many: (1) Water harvesting in the

The Right to Information Act is supposed to ensure transparency in administration and governance. But a survey done by Pragati Abhiyan in Nashik district of Maharashtra finds that many government offices have not yet nominated a public information officer as required under the Act. Often information exists in a raw form, but it is not processed into a consolidated format.

The experience of the Jagrut Adivasi Dalit Sangathan in Madhya Pradesh shows the power of grassroots organisational work in activating the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Levels of NREGA employment in the Sangathan areas are as high as 85 days per household per year, and nearly half of all working households have got 100 days of work. They also earn the minimum wage.

The reduction of poverty in India requires much more than solutions such as direct cash transfers.