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.

The odds of children in villages in Krishnagiri district, Tamilnadu, making it to college are one per cent, ten times below the low national average. Some interventions are helping, finds Krithika Ramalingam as she records the many realities here.

Recognising that government schools with their Tamil medium education do nothing to ensure a good career path or ensure employment, parents are stretching themselves to make the shift in rural Tamilnadu. Still, plenty of challenges remain reports Krithika Ramalingam.

Recent student protests in Tamilnadu may have had the Sri Lankan issue and the Indian governmental stance on it as the immediate trigger, but in reality, the dynamics go much deeper and need to be viewed in a broader context. Gnana Bharathy analyses.

These days, select impoverished neighbourhoods in Chennai have become the nursery of future champion boxers. Girls in these neighbourhoods are receiving training in boxing, something that has given them the confidence to stand up for themselves and dream big, reveals Hema Vijay.

We can fight the scrouge of corruption not by legislation nor by moral pressures but by an awakened community which refuses to settle for anything less that what is its legitimate due, writes R Balasubramaniam.

An increasing number of farmers from across the country are flocking to the annual rice sharing festival in Tamil Nadu, where a whopping number of traditional rice seed varieties are exchanged and subsequently cultivated in different locales. Devinder Sharma reports from the 2014 event.

Ironically at a time when food shortage is being widely perceived as a potential global concern in the near future, policymakers seem to be doing everything that would take agriculture further down the path of ruin. Devinder Sharma highlights the findings of a recent NSSO report to substantiate that.

The proposed National ID should be a backbone upon which governance and economic development rest comfortably, rather than merely a tool for auditing schemes, writes Ashwin Mahesh.

Gene Campaign writes to the Agriculture Minister demanding compensation for Indian farmers payable under the laws for failure of Monsanto-Mahyco's Bt cotton variety.

2004 is being celebrated as the International Year of Rice, and the starchy grain has undergone a complete metamorphosis, says Devinder Sharma.

On 3 May, the Ministry of Environment and Forests cancelled its earlier approval for commercial cultivation of three varieties of transgenic Bt cotton seeds in Andhra Pradesh. How must one read the decision of the GEAC? Kanchi Kohli says the developments may only be a breather.

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.

The debate in GM plants is deeply suffused by vested interests. In addition to impeding research, companies also exert their influence on review and approval, writes Sujatha Byravan.

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.

The Ministry of Agriculture moves to introduce adoption of genetically modified crops in India, in the name of food security. Scientists, however, are critical of this move. Neha Saigal reports.

Subsurface dams can force untapped waters to the surface, making more water available downstream without major ecological and human costs, says Jagadiswara Rao.

The Supreme Court keeps issuing orders on water disputes, but these rarely prevail. Videh Upadhyay urges the Court to seize the opportunity to change that, permanently.

Researchers around the country gathered to discuss solutions to the key water-related problems India faces. From conflicts between states, to water-saving agricultural practices, to receding glaciers, a number of issues were raised, and their economic and social implications weighed. Surekha Sule reports.

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.

In a nation where floods and drought continually cause havoc in different regions, two recent events, one in Rajasthan and the other in Karnataka have brought citizens and media together to resolve acute water shortages. These are hopeful signs. The India Together editorial.

Rainwater harvesting isn't just to overcome shortages in piped supply, sometimes there is so much to tap overhead that no other source is needed. And some of the regular sources can even be loaned out to others! Shree Padre visits a District Panchayat Office in Kerala that has discovered this.

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.

Farmers in rural India and students in American universities may have more in common than it would seem. While Cola companies have run into opposition in several states in India, student bodies in North America are pressuring universities to wind up contracts letting the firms exclusively sell water and soft drinks on campus. Sandeep Pandey connects the dots.

The practical management of water systems has become detached from the knowledge gained through research, which has made great progress in the last two or three decades. Because critical elements of research have been externalised, the induction of new inter-disciplinary learning has been greatly limited, writes Jayanta Bandyopadhyay.

Thanks to voluntary water harvesting measures by a few, as well as legislation-led RWH by the others, many of Chennai's open wells have sprung back to life. The bountiful rains of 2005 showed that where conservation efforts are in place, even a single season's rainfall can largely restore water security. Shree Padre reports.

New Delhi can easily develop the procedures needed to ensure that projects that have not been approved by either CWC or the Planning Commission do not get statutory clearances. Instead of using such powers, central agencies work more like agents for sub-optimal development. Himanshu Thakkar reports.

This 250 metre-long suranga, situated by the side of a school in Kasargod, Kerala resembles the famed Iranian water system - the qanat - more than its other counterparts in the district. Shree Padre reports on its passing out from regular use.

Activists and governments alike demand that future deliberations on water issues be brought within the legitimate fold of the UN, and not hosted by private and corporate interests. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

The MoEF's assessment of the environment, which should be the foundation for strategic planning in the ministry, is highly inadequate, and is a poor second to similar efforts by environmentalists themselves, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

A high-power Kerala government panel has put Coca Cola in the dock and ordered it to cough up damages to Plachimada's victims. However, the panel's questionable constitution could act as a red herring and may even drag the saga, writes P N Venugopal.

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.

The uncertainty of the nature and extent of climate change impact on the water sector calls for adaptive and flexible measures. Shripad Dharmadhikary quotes from a recent report of a Working Group within the IPCC to explain why.

In many part of rural India, women spend most of their time walking long distances to collect water for their household's needs. Nitin Jugran Bahuguna visits the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand where the women no longer have to worry about fetching water from long distances thanks to an intervention that has brought potable water right to their doorstep.

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

How do we bring back to our streets the Indian identities they once had? The answer lies in documenting and codifying the many elements of construction in the past, for evolving an architecture with an Indian identity, writes Kiran Keswani.

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.

The nults and bolts of local democracy lie in a community-government partnership. Ramesh Ramanathan proposes a business model.

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

Creative use of technology will help our governing institutions improve their infrastructure. That in turn may bring both transparency and inclusive, efficient markets says Krishna Rupanagunta.

Sajan Venniyoor asseses the upcoming public consultations on the second phase of FM Licensing in India.

An "All Fun, All Day Long, For Everyone” amusement park in Kerala's Kochi region has not been fun for the local panchayat, reports M Suchitra.

In a recent lathi charge on protesting student activists, Kerala's police used electric shock batons. The state's model of development has many votaries worldwide, but the savageness in police actions on mass programmes does not seem to be going away, reports Venugopal P N.

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.

When Executive Engineer S K Nagarwal reported corruption in railway track laying in West Bengal, his saga with colluding officials and contractors began. Now, supported by the S K Dubey foundation, a citizens' forum has sprung up to protect Nagarwal and other whistleblowers. Varupi Jain reports.

Tamilnadu's foray into e-governance has not yet lived upto potential because policy makers may be implementing top-driven projects with little public participation. Still, the state does have its own examples of how things could work. Krithika Ramalingam reports.

There are many ideas about how change occurs. Each has some strengths and is able to influence government to some degree, for good as well as bad. I prefer advocacy of decency and an autonomy that benefits people directly over other methods, says Ashwin Mahesh.

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.