In Malawi, the fifth poorest country in the world, the government introduced a voucher programme for small scale farmers, providing them access to subsidised fertilizer
and seed. The country suddenly saw bumper harvests in both 2006 and 2007. Are fertilizer subsidies the way out of poverty for small scale farmers in Africa?

Health must no longer be considered as a separate, stand-alone entity. Sustainable improvement in health status can occur only in conjunction with overall development in the community. At the same time health is a prerequisite for economic and social development. In our vision, are the one billion plus an asset to be fostered or a liability to be tolerated?

Use of pesticides in India has substantially increased in recent years. It is increasingly becoming an inevitable input in intensive agriculture systems, which have mainly been fuelled by changes in cropping pattern and practice. Survey results confirmed that there has been a widespread lack of awareness on pesticides and their appropriate handling among the applicators in India. Implementation of alternate pest management strategies to reduce pesticide consumption was found to be ineffective.

Bridging the infrastructure gap by promoting public private partnerships has become the preferred mode for the execution of public projects. The government needs to develop the necessary capability to handle the large number of PPP projects that are to be taken up during the Eleventh Plan.

Progressive Maharashtra has rushed to install wind energy plants. But, ask nidhi jamwal and shikha lakhanpal, reporting from Mumbai and Dhule, why so little electricity is actually generated? Is there an other purpose to private interest in wind?

China may look like a carbon-guzzling monster, but there's a clean-tech superpower struggling to get out, says Changhua Wu.