"We were pushed out of the queues for food, relief material, an even drinking water", says Bama Rajazhagan, a dalit. But not all is gloomy in Nagapattinam; district machinery, voluntary organisations, and the army are lending support to rebuilding. Krithika Ramalingam reports.

New Delhi's two months time for feedback on its draft Coastal Management Zone notification expired on 8 July. Activists say the proposed law will make way for beach-front villas and water-front recreation parks and do little to protect the rights of fisherfolk and the environment. Krithika Ramalingam reports.

A number of NGO-run schools in Tamilnadu are making a clear difference in helping underprivileged chilren get a better shot at the real world, in comparison to state-run schools. Still, the schools themselves need help, finds Krithika Ramalingam.

Almost one in every two children under three years of age is hungry. This is the invisible half of our population, people who disappear from our consciousness until they die in large numbers, writes Kalpana Sharma.

The National Food Security Act proposes to lower ration prices, but also reduce the quantity of grain that is given to each family. Devinder Sharma suggests a Zero Hunger programme instead.

Amongst the various models for sustainable livelihoods being tried and tested in the tribal areas of India, the Wadi model has shown a lot of promise. Abhijeet Mohanty, Kieran Robson and Rosie Clarkson find out why and how the Wadi model is doing in the tribal areas of Koraput district of Odisha.

Nivedita Rao of PRS Legislative presents the current status of malnutrition and measures proposed by the recently released National Nutrition Strategy by NITI Aayog.

Lobbyists for agri-business interests will promote their agenda, naturally, but we must judge the merit of introducing more GE crops in India ourselves. Common sense, and all the data that is open to scrutiny, suggests that we should not, says P V Satheesh.

Any discussion of GM crops must take place within the larger framework of the indispensable need to promote biodiversity and set up agricultural policies linked to this need, writes Sujatha Byravan.

As debates around genetically modified (GM) mustard pick up in India, Shalini Bhutani takes a look at the neglected diversity of the oilseed mustard crop on native farmers’ fields and points to the bias of the existing law.

S G Vombatkere begins a series on the proposed gigantic network of interlinked rivers and the alternatives

S G Vombatkere presents an alternative to the proposed gigantic network of interlinked rivers. This is the second in a series of three articles.

Democratic decentralization for watershed development can only happen when the centralizing tendencies of the vested groups are curbed, says Videh Upadhyay.

Punjab needs water, and that means some of the water-guzzling crops must go. But questions of food security and corporatized agriculture confront the state's proposed shift, says Sudhirendar Sharma.

Once among the most productive agrarian economies in the country, this region of Thanjavur district is now reeling. Lalitha Sridhar reports on the situation and implications.

If wishes could be horses, then the Gujarat government would turn wishes into lakes too, reports Himanshu Upadhyaya.

Following an 18-month long yatra of the nation's river basins, the Rashtriya Jal Biradari proposes policies and steps to address India's water problems. Anuj Grover reports.

In the 2004-5 budget speech, the finance minister announced subsidy support for a hundred thousand water harvesting units. But governments continue to miss the point that decentralisation must allow citizens choice over institutions too, not merely access to new schemes and loans, says Sudhirendar Sharma.

Over the last five years the farmers of two rural districts outside Chennai have started selling water from their irrigation wells to the city's water utility. This, to the detriment of cultivation in their own lands and those of neighbouring farmers, reports Krithika Ramalingam.

Six leading advocates of decentralisation and people centred planning met the President of India on 20 April to impress upon him that the Interlinking of Rivers project as currently being envisaged is the wrong direction for the country to take. They have since written a letter to Dr.Kalam addressing his questions.

An environment magazine recently carried a Gujarat government-funded NGO's advertisement portraying vast tracts of Saurashtra and Kachchh supplied with drinking water through pipelines forking off of the Sardar Sarovar Canal. Reports in the print media were telling quite a different story. Himanshu Upadhyaya digs deeper.

The expectations with which the Haryali watershed management programme was introduced are slowly being dashed. The programme's poor guidelines, along with power struggles and inadequate local knowledge, have made it victim to the same old politics. Surekha Sule reports.

With its enchanting greenery and network of backwaters and rivers, Kerala is thought to be a water-plenty state. After all, Kerala gets 6 months of rainfall, 2.5 times higher than the national average. Despite this, the state has been experiencing water scarcity, with conditions worsening in some regions. P N Venugopal analyses the causes.

While the LDF government was quick to ban colas in Kerala, it mounted only a mild defense when this was challenged in court by the manufacturers of the drinks. Ignoring evidence of groundwater depletion and contamination, it argued only that the drinks were unsafe for consumption. M Suchitra and P N Venugopal report.

This dairy in Palakkad, Kerala spent over Rs.2 lakhs buying water from outside in 2008, since borewell yields were insufficient. This year they will spend nearly eight-nine times less, because of a rain pond. Shree Padre has more.

Keni, the miraculous mini well of adivasis of Wayanad in Kerala, is well on its way to becoming a part of history - a victim of rapid environmental decline of this once bountiful state. Shree Padre reports.

A two-day dialogue on urban rivers held in Pune focused on the plight of urban rivers. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports and presents his views.

Ramesh Ramanathan on participatory democracy and public governance

Concluding article of the series on "What ails our public services?" adapted from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore.

In the second in a series of two articles, Jayaprakash Narayan discusses on the connection between the fiscal crisis and decentralization of political power.

Fourth in a series of articles on civil society and governance, Jayaprakash Narayan answers a few commonly discussed questions.

Third in a series of articles on civil society and governance, Jayaprakash Narayan says that political parties have to be transformed and maintains that visions of partyless democracy are unalloyed idealism.

Fifth in the series of articles on civil society and governance Jayaprakash Narayan assesses the challenges from where a process of transformation must emerge.

A Lok Satta report on the recently concluded AP signature campaign that met and exceeded the target of 10 million (one crore) signatures, indicating the support for local government empowerment amidst citizens.

Powerbrokers and opposition parties chip away at New Delhi's dominance in Centre-state relations, forcing changes to Article 356 and rules for labour. Prasenjit Maiti reports.

As poverty in Karnataka acquires a larger urban face, municipal administrations must reorient themselves to meet basic needs, says Kathyayini Chamaraj.

What turns police personnel into instruments of violence against the underprivileged classes to which they often themselves belong? Arvind Verma has some answers.

Top-down water supply and sanitation schemes have failed the poor time and again. But for decentralization and community involvement to work, local governments -- municipalities -- must improve. Surekha Sule reports on the findings of a global assessment that included India.

Kerala's lottery regulation is in a mess. Liquor contractors are getting away without paying license fees that are precious revenue to a debt trapped government. The High Court passes a stricture on a minister over sandalwood smuggling. P N Venugopal finds much wrong with the Chandy administration.

The Police Act Drafting Committee's term came to an end on 31 January. Any significant attempt to reform the Indian police must begin with the men at the bottom, the constabulary, not at the top. However, such changes would call for a struggle against the nature of Indian society itself, says former IPS officer K S Subramanian.

Environmental clearances in India have always raised questions, as noted in many reports in India Together. For years now, NGOs have opposed the Ministry of Environment, sometimes bitterly. Last year, the Ministry proposed a 're-engineered' regulation, and found a new opposition - the state governments. Kanchi Kohli has more.

Two years after being appointed to the National Advisory Council, Aruna Roy has decided to decline a new term. While expressing happiness over some of the work the NAC has been able to do in the past, she now believes that the space for the advisory body to function as a forum for public consultation has diminished.

Held in Geneva last month, the Rotterdam Convention was attended by 500 participants from 140 governments, UN organisations, and NGOs. India sided with Canada and few other nations to prevent the listing of chrysotile asbestos, a known carcinogen. R Sridhar has more.

Even as the CAG audit findings find faults with SSNNL for diverting the central funds from canal construction to unintended purposes, permission has been granted to raise the Narmada dam height. Himanshu Upadhyaya. points out this irony and more.

Four years on, positives seem to be weighed down by negatives -- thanks mainly to the aggressive land acquisition for mega real estate projects by the ruling LDF coalition. P N Venugopal wonders if the government’s confidence is at its low ebb.

This time around, there is too much pressure - from opposition, media, and people at large - on the standing committee and Parliament for them to sit over the bill and let it lapse, writes Mathew Prasad Idiculla.

Apathetic, inefficient government and mindless pursuit of Western consumerist ideals by a few have brought India's marginalized millions to a state where the judiciary has to intervene to enforce the most basic of rights. Often, without effect, as Sakuntala Narasimhan finds.

As the massive disaster in flood-stricken Uttarakhand unfolds, Himanshu Upadhyaya draws attention to the glaring inadequacies in disaster management preparedness and risk reduction in the state, as well as the nation, as exposed by recent audits.

A recent consultation between global and local urbanisation experts and bureaucrats focussed on securing Mumbai’s position in the map of ‘Globally Fluent Cities,’ as envisaged by an international initiative. Darryl D’Monte draws attention to a few critical issues that should be included in such deliberation.

From Bangalore to Bengaluru, or from Bombay to Mumbai, do name changes signify attempts to shake off colonial shackles, instances of linguistic one-upmanship or merely political agenda? Supriya Unni Nair delves deeper into the practice and finds an interesting history.