SPANNING 9 chapters, Tushaar Shah's book focuses on a very specific but vital component of India's agricultural development -- groundwater markets (GWMs) and its effect on the economy, society and

The Planning Commission is embarking on a new approach to agriculture planning. But state governments and the finance ministry are reluctant to invest in "untried" concepts.

• Plan priorities ACRP assumes that once land and water resources are developed, the desired levels of yield and productivity will be achieved. Soil conservation and reclamation, irrigation

INDIA is in "imminent danger of losing a large part of its productive lands through soil salinisation", says N T Singh of the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute in Karnal. Soil salinity is

While more villages in UP's Unnao district are gripped by fluorosis each year, the state's ground water board remains entangled in bureaucratic procedures.

This book describes major environmental changes in India. It's a balance sheet of India's resources and focuses attention on the effect of ecological degradation on the poor. The interesting thing in the second report is the information that is provides on the linkages that operate on what can be called the interface areas: at the interfaces between different ecological spaces like croplands, grazing lands and forests; between the people and their environment; between economies of towns and villages, and so on.

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