A study of the socio-economic situations of three villages in north-eastern Andhra Pradesh shows that while times and values have vastly changed, not much has been transformed in terms of privileges and opportunities. Those belonging to landowning families have managed to get a good education and secure good jobs or set up businesses. But those from the landless or marginal landowning families and communities have been left far behind. The government’s schemes and promises have more often than not yielded very little.

Under the Professional Institutional Networking (PIN) of Ministry of Rural Development, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) sanctioned the Impact Assessment study in three districts namely Sirsa in Haryana, Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh and Hoshiarpur in Punjab. NREGS was started in the first phase in these selected districts.

Marianne Fay, chief economist for the World Bank Sustainable Development Network, led a study on green growth, defined as growth that is effi’cient, clean, and resilient: e’cient in its use of natural resources, clean in minimizing pollution and environmental impacts, and resilient in fully accounting for natural hazards. Here, Environment Matters interviews Fay on what the study means.

Newly democratic Bhutan pushes community forestry to tackle rural poverty.

Read More : http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/forests-people

Doles are not a long-term solution for poverty alleviation; they only promote indolence. Catering to the rising life-style of urban India and leading rural Bharat to a spiral of prosperity can only come through setting up of productive enterprise, opines Chandigarh-based technologist and entrepreneurial professional Chandra Mohan.