Norwegian medicine for Vedanta
ON 19 November, the Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi received some unusual visitors. Even the police and security personnel stationed in the heavily-guarded Chanakyapuri area of Delhi where the Norwegian and other embassies are located could not figure out the purpose of these visitors. Though they were Indian citizens, ethnically they belong to a distinct tribal minority group called ongria Kondh. Dressed in their traditional attire, these tribal representatives came all the way from the remote Niyamgiri hills of Orissa to express gratitude to the Norwegian government for removing UKbased Vedanta Resources Plc from its investment portfolio.
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Malegaon’s fake poverty
THE French philosopher, Albert Camus, writing on modern society and its perils wrote," In a curious transposition peculiar to our times, it is innocence that is called to justify itself." He could well have been describing Malegaon's fate. How else does one explain the predicament Malegaon is in today: a town on the verge of bankruptcy where local taxes have increased manifold over the years. The house tax in Malegaon is reportedly more than that of Nashik Corporation. Today, it is difficult to believe that when Malegaon was a Municipal Council it would lend money to the Nashik Municipal Council.
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Nandigram in the long run
PEOPLE of West Bengal witnessed an event that perhaps cannot happen quite often in one’s lifetime. It unfurled just a few hours before I sat down to write this piece. People in thousands – representing no political outfits, raising no political slogans, raising no flags either – walked silently down the road to protest against the mayhem that West Bengal and the rest of the country saw happening in Nandigram.
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How Paris celebrates culture
OFTEN, in societies made up of the people, governed by the people and for the benefit of the people, we see wonderful things happening. ‘Nuit Blanche’ or ‘All-Nighter’ in France is one such example. Another creation of Paris’ brilliant mayor, Betrand Delanoe and his deputy, Christophe Girard, Nuit Blanche was designed to make the vast cultural wealth of France’s metropolis available and accessible to the common man for two nights in the first weekend of October – before his long winter hibernation.
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Overnight land grab in Bomja
RECENTLY, the state took over not just one or two, but 226 hectares of land. This incident did not happen in West Bengal, Punjab or Maharashtra but in Arunachal Pradesh, perhaps the reason why it was overlooked. The takeover did not involve ‘private’ land, but was earlier owned collectively by villagers living around it.The land in question is in Bomja village located in the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh. As per the 2001 census, 31 households reside in this village with a population of 118 and an unbelievably high sex ratio of 1408 females per thousand male.
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Delhi’s Bluelines and true lies
ON October 15, around 4,000 Blueline bus drivers gathered at a dharamshala in west Delhi to discuss the police crackdown against them. Along with the drivers, the buses also abstained from work on that day. The next day, newspaper headlines screamed “Blue Blackmail” and “Delhi held to ransom” and Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, threatened to invoke ESMA to force the buses back on the road.
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Bangladesh for NGOs in RTI
THE Bangladesh Constitution does not have any statute that specifically recognises the people’s right to information or provides procedures for its implementation. The need to create a coherent legal framework for freedom of information has been felt for quite sometime in Bangladesh and a movement is already on An effective Right to Information (RTI) law should make access to information real.
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The pitfalls of HIV estimates
THE National Aids Control Programme -3 (NACP3) document which hundreds of us worked very hard to contribute to, was finally launched. So were the new HIV estimates for India which said numbers of those affected were less by 50 per cent. Everyone, except those who will eventually take the plan to the last mile, were present on the occasion. And they agreed in quiet compliance. There wasn’t even token representation from the positive people’s networks. Civil society representation of any significance was entirely missing.
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Doha hand in US pocket
AN outcome acceptable to all members of the WTO out of the Doha negotiations that began in November 2001 is in all probability going to be delayed further. The Doha Declaration committed members to comprehensive negotiations aimed at substantial improvements in market access, reduction of all forms of export subsidies, and substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support in respect of trade in agriculture.
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Bundelkhand’s shocking poverty
SEVERAL regions of India have been facing an agro-ecological and food security crisis in recent years. Villages have been fighting a battle for survival amid water shortages, adverse weather conditions, ruined crops and high indebtedness resulting in the distress sale of land.
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Rural surgeons are the future
SOCIAL prosperity of the common man, good health and education facilities should be the criteria for the economic growth of the nation. Pats on our back by the World Bank or the IMF should be thrown into the gutter. We have to redefine our own norms of economic growth. Western cultural slavery has made our people greedy and individualistic. Unless we hark back to Gandhian philosophy and economics, our country is doomed to remain ‘developing’. Gandhian philosophy is not against industrial or modern scientific growth.
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Why we look like this
I find I have a love-hate relationship with opinion polls. They are absolutely essential to engage your stakeholders and find out what they think of you or want you to do. But the results can often be so confusing and contradictory! In the poll commissioned by Civil Society, 89 per cent of Delhi respondents felt that NGOs were important and 76 per cent felt they were effective in influencing government policies. But only 31 per cent said they were important to protect people’s interests and as many as 78 per cent felt that they took up personal agendas.
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Will NGO leaders stand up
Dalits grapple with panchayat
THE creation of Panchayati Raj is perhaps the best thing that happened to democratic India. It motivated ordinary people to assert themselves in power-sharing. In fact, their participation increased by leaps and bounds. The amendment of Article 73 of the Constitution was envisioned as the best means to decentralise democracy. Panchayati Raj, it was hoped, would devolve power to the grassroots, improve the delivery of goods and services and radically alter social equations.
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NGOs can bridge the divide
MIDDLE class citizens in Indian metros were the first beneficiaries of India’s economic reforms. Competition amongst foreign and Indian companies, almost all in the private sector, vying for these customers have given them much more choice than they had before – of cars, home appliances, telephone services, media, clothes, and food.
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The global non-profit
THE World Bank defines NGOs as "private organisations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development". The broader usage the term NGO has presently acquired can be applied to any non-profit organisation which is independent from government. For their funding, NGOs depend wholly or in greater part on sources external to their operations.
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NGOs do what govt should
RECENTLY, while having a discussion with a doctor from Bangladesh, I was surprised to hear from him that the acronym NGO has a very negative connotation in Bangladesh. I was surprised because Bangladesh has NGOs that are often held up as models worthy of emulation elsewhere.
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NGOs are being watched
THE opinion poll conducted for this magazine by GFK Mode is full of interesting perceptions and indicators that politicians and others interested in better governance in the country should take a close look at.
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NGOs are here to stay
WHAT an interesting issue of Civil Society. NGO India is a force to contend with, to acknowledge and, sometimes, be grateful to. This is because NGOs in many ways represent the sane ground in an India full of contradictions. Ideally, that is the role a government should play, but it doesn’t always work that way and so people look to civil society to keep our disparate pieces glued together.
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Best answers are in action
THE opinion poll conducted for this magazine by GFK Mode is full of interesting perceptions and indicators that politicians and others interested in better governance in the country should take a close look at.
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No guarantee of employment?
THE National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is being extended to 130 new districts in the country from the coming financial year. Two hundred districts were brought under the purview of the scheme last year. Now a total of 330 districts will be covered by the scheme.
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