In search of sustainable growth

By Shankar Sharma
24 Jun 2011


The policymakers say that to eradicate poverty, India needs to grow at the rate of 9 percent for the next 20 years. But why ignore the long term social, economic and environmental impacts on the vulnerable sections of our society of environmentally unsustainable ways to growth?

The ‘expert group on low carbon strategies for inclusive growth’ which was set up under the Planning Commission to develop a strategy for India’s 12th Five Year Plan has released its interim report recently.

read more @: http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1651

Lying down for Justice

By S. G. Vombatkere
14 Jun 2011

Hundreds of children are opposing the government plan to acquire lands and forests for the Posco plant. This unique action by children is a warning to the policy makers to reconsider their development strategy before it is too late to make a course correction.

The people and especially the children of Dhinkia, Gadkujang, Govindpur and Nuagaon villages in Jagatsinghpur District in Odisha have shown how people matter over governments' plans for development of business corporations at their cost. The children “illegally” lay down on the hot earth in the blazing summer heat and refused to move to allow entry to government officials to take over forest land and their villages for the POSCO mega-project.

read more @: http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1644

Unhappy! So what?

By Sudhirendar Sharma
31 May 2011

The social pressure to feel happy has made people more miserable. The market is the sole gainer of this desperate search for happiness, offering unending items and services to make the consumer feel better.

Recent research suggests that happiness may not be bliss, as people who strive for happiness may end up being worse off. Says June Gruber of Yale University, who published the research findings in Perspectives on Psychological Science: "doing things with the expectation that these ought to make you happy can lead to disappointment and decreased happiness." Conversely, being unhappy shouldn't be thought of as a universally bad thing.

read more @: http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1636

Green projects with red results

By Pandurang Hegde
23 May 2011


Mini hydel projects, initially considered by environmentalists as green alternatives for power generation, have become threat to fragile ecosystems. The lure of high returns on investment, in addition to various incentives, created a mad rush among private players leading to destruction of natural forests.

The growth of economy as well as maintaining high GDP growth rate is directly linked to the availability of power. So, successive governments give a push to increase power production.

read more @ http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1621

The mission unholy

Rina Mukherji
18 May 2011

India has been under attack for more than a millennium. The wicked attempts to destroy its civilization and denigrate the beliefs of the natives continue unabated despite the nation achieving political independence from the Europeans after the painful partition.

For decades, texts and tomes published in the West have been bombarding us with theories that India is primarily made up of distinct ‘Aryan’ and ‘Dravidian’ racial strains, with the ‘tribals’ and ‘dalits’ comprising the other distinct groups.

read more @: http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1617

We need new system, not laws!

By Kuldeep Ratnoo
06 May 2011

To remove corruption, we need to change the alien system of governance which encourages exploitation of public resources for personal benefits. A new law wouldn't make a big difference unless power is decentralised up to the panchayat level.
In our country, where everything, be it a degree to conduct surgery or fly airplanes, or scientific approval to sell deadly technologies, can be ‘ensured’ for a price, it appears that most ‘aspiring and ambitious’ persons have accepted corruption as a ‘necessary evil’. As success is measured in terms of money earned by a person, corruption has become the highway to ‘growth’ and a ‘better life’. Those, who voluntarily opt to miss the immoral flight to ‘higher levels’, get ridiculed, marginalised and pitied by one and all, including their near and dear ones.

read more @: http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1601

More frightened than their corrupt masters

By Kuldeep Ratnoo
27 Apr 2011

The mass mobilisation across the nation against corruption has terrified the so-called intellectuals who fear rising influence of people over policy making process would be detrimental to their authority and appeal.
Most people in India were stunned by the huge public support that Anna Hazare led campaign against corruption received. But many more were startled to read and hear disapproval of this mass awakening against corruption, and denunciation of the people behind it by the so-called ‘intellectuals and prominent persons of the civil society’.

read more @: http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1593