Shielding herself from the fierce afternoon sun with a bright dupatta, Urmila lowers her bucket deep into the heart of the well. As she draws out bucket after bucket of water, Urmila talks about how the water level has never been this low. "The colour and quality of the water has deteriorated over the last few years," she says. "But we are lucky.

Dropping ground water levels in Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh prompt a fresh crop of protest actions against Coca-Cola. Six years into the battle between Coca-Cola and residents of Mehdiganj and

After two unsuccessful attempts to set up a mini-hydel project on the ecologically sensitive Kali river between Dandeli town, 480 kilometres from Bangalore, Karnataka, and the Supa dam upstream, the

A mass social audit initiative of employment guarantee works in Dungarpur district of Rajasthan produces encouraging results. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is barely three

THE National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is barely three months old on the ground.

Uttar Pradesh and Bihar frustrate India's efforts at polio eradication after a missed WHO deadline.

LAST year the country recorded the least number of cases of the wild polio virus (WPV): 66 cases in 35 districts nationwide, the majority of which are in two pockets in Western Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The number was 134 the previous year in 43 districts.

ONE accusation that is flung at the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) consistently is that the organisation is against the Sardar Sarovar dam. While this was true at one time, the NBA has been forced to accept the existence of the dam and it no longer denounces its construction.

ON March 8, the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) gave the green signal to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam from 110.64 metres to 121.92 m.

1947: The Central Waterways Irrigation and Navigation Commission, acting on the request of the Central Provinces, Berar (now part of the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra) and the Government of Bombay, begins a study of the Navagram project (renamed Sardar Sarovar Project in 1978) for developing the Narmada river system.

THE textile industry plays an important role in the economy of the country. It accounts for about 14 per cent of the industrial production, 4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 16 per cent of the country's export earnings.

Pages