Nationalisation of coalmines has failed badly

They pay the real price of mining with their parched throats and poisoned bodies. For some 400 villages in and around the Talcher coalfields of Orissa, it is a mad rush for water. Wells are sinking,

Desperate measures are the call of the day. Common people need to have a greater say

Pressured by a highly active civil society, the Kerala state government is actually giving power to the people. The decentralisation theory has been turned on its head. People get the money first, and then build the infrastructure to govern themselves. Bu

Decentralisation in Kerala is the work of a persistent civil society

The administrative restructuring which has decentralised planning

The government budget now represents the needs and plans of local bodies

To understand why Kerala reports almost two out of three cases of suicide in India - and what a difference decentralisation of power can make to the situation - go to Bhranthan Moola and

Kerala s income growth rate has increased, among several other positive signs

It is a labour bank called Thozhil Sena . Its capital is human labour and the clients are mostly farmers who loan labour at a rate of interest. Perhaps the first of its kind in India, the