The anti-corruption campaign has shown that a desperate public demands an immediate solution. Citizens have got a taste of direct democracy which is frightening for the privileged manipulators of the system, but liberating for the poor who are usually manipulated. While what the future holds cannot be predicted, the prize at this juncture of the history of Indian democracy is indeed so great that the compulsion in favour of the Jan Lokpal Bill is overwhelming.

China is attempting to pursue the same impossible path as the rest of the world: generating consumer demand and wealth without destroying its natural resources and the planet.

The Yorkshire village of Todmorden has taken local food to heart – and to the street. The planting of food crops at forty public locations throughout the village offer locals, and visitors, the chance to pick their own fresh fruit and vegetables, and it’s all free. From the local police station to the cemetery, from the health centre to the elderly care home (with raised garden beds at wheelchair height), in tubs on the street and in plots dug by the canal, Todmorden is embracing “local edible” with a passion.

This article looks at a system designed and implemented by members of an indigenous community in central Ecuador, which, by localising food production, distribution and consumption, ties together a series of efforts that provide a safeguard against the precarious nature of local employment and fluctuating food prices. Results so far show that this collective action is strengthening community cohesion, and demonstrate how initiatives based on the concept of food sovereignty can address some of the clear inequalities of our globalised food system.

What happens when villagers are allowed to monitor their local public health facilities? India’s National Rural Health Mission is making such accountability a reality through its community-based monitoring initiative. This article presents the first three rounds of data collected by village health committee members in Maharashtra’s 225 pilot villages. The obstacles encountered by the process and its strengths and limitations are also discussed.

Planning Commission has reached out to citizens through civil society groups and a Facebook page for their inputs while framing the 12th plan. An insider explains the intricate process which has been like redesigning the aircraft while flying.

This article studies the development of the Non-Pesticidal Management Project (NPM) that emerged in the late 1980s in Andhra Pradesh's Warangal district of the semi-arid region Telengana as a response to accumulating agrarian distress, when chemical pesticides did not help to counter massive pest infestations.