Much as the United States President George W. Bush and the US secretary of state Con-doleezza Rice would like to believe that 'apparent improvement' in the diets of people in India and China is among the causes of the current global food crisis, the food crisis is the result of other factors as well, not the least important among them being the diversion of food for bio-fuels.

Work has started on India's first Mass Rapid Transit System being implemented on the public private partnership mode

Mumbai's infrastructure may be falling apart through municipal neglect and the city may have already been bartered away to builders, but none can dispute that its administrators are short of ambitious plans for its development.

In the district of Sirsa in Haryana, wage rates have increased appreciably after the nregs started being implemented there. Being a cotton-producing district, the daily wage for cotton-picking workers was around Rs85 when the scheme was launched. While the scheme offered Rs95, workers shifted to projects run under the scheme.

The national rural employment guarantee scheme completes two years and moves to cover all the districts in the country. Has it been worth it?

Gujarati farmers are known for their astute business sense. They invariably switch over to a crop that fetches them more money. Earlier, when the farmers in Gujarat found cotton cultivation more profitable than groundnut crop, they had started growing more cotton. This year, Gujarat farmers have taken to cultivation of wheat to reap a rich harvest.

The Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb) has come out with guidelines on environmentally sound management of e-waste. The guiding principles come at a time when there is a pressing need for intervention as the e-waste inventory in India is expected to shoot up in the coming years.

Bihani Cement Ltd, the flagship company of the Braj Binani Group, which has interests in cement, zinc and fibre glass, is growing globally. "We are trying to replicate what Anil Agarwal did to Vedanta," says Vinod Junej a, deputy managing director, Binani Cements.

S&T, agriculture ministries hold the key to exploiting a good monsoon to augment food production

Though there is an economic boom in India there is a flipside to it too. According to estimates there are 80.7 million urban poor in India and a housing shortage of 24.7 million, says Kumari Selja, minister of state (independent charge), housing and urban poverty alleviation.

Green Ventures India aims to offer technology and advisory services in return for securing carbon credits