Chemometric techniques such as factor analysis (FA),cluster analysis (CA) and discriminant analysis (DA) were applied to the groundwater quality data in a tannery-polluted area of Chennai city, India.

The 2007 National Policy on the Voluntary Sector aims at creating an enabling environment for voluntary organisations and facilitating their partnership with the government. But it suffers from a major lacuna in that it fails to comprehensively address the central aspects of autonomy, credibility and the nature of partnership itself. Instead of assisting the voluntary sector to take on roles distinct from and complementary to the state's development agenda, it encourages activities commensurate with state approaches. April 19-25, 2008

This paper examines the behaviour of exchange rate pass-through to domestic prices in India after the reforms initiated in the early 1990s. Unlike observed in several countries, it finds a rise in exchange rate pass-through to domestic prices until recent years. Besides economic factors typically associated with economic liberalisation, the persistence of higher inflation is an important factor for the rise in pass-through.

With the changes in India over the past 25 years, there is now a new dynamic logic that ties the operations of "political society' (comprising the peasantry, artisans and petty producers in the informal sector) with the hegemonic role of the bourgeoisie in "civil society'.

The tsunami relief effort was based on the recognition that out of disaster an opportunity can be created to rebuild, expand and improve upon services, correct imbalances and meet the needs of vulnerable groups. But in housing, this case study from Tamil Nadu shows that even three years after the disaster, a large proportion of the affected continue to live in temporary shelters. April 19-25, 2008

An enormous amount of funds (government, multilateral and non-government) flowed into the coastal areas hit by the tsunami of December 2004. But what has been the quality of rehabilitation and what lives do the survivors

Global environmental problems like climate change should be conceptualised as problems of consumption and not production patterns. A consumption rather than a production-based vision for environmentally sustainable economic growth would make the design and implementation of climate protection, as well as other environmental problems, more effective.

What are the implications of the loan waiver announced in the budget 2008-09? How well has the budget tackled the core issues in agriculture?

The Orissa government's agreement with Vedanta Alumina to allow mining of bauxite deposits in the Niyamgiri hills, the home of the Dongaria Kondha tribe, is an example of how corporate interests backed by state support are trampling on tribal livelihoods and threatening an ecologically rich and important region.

Madhu Ramnath's