[Select Clippings Click here]
[What's new | What's news at CED Click
here]
in
focus
The Ministry of Environment & Forests, GOI has prepared the draft
Notification on Coastal Zone Management.
The new draft which will replace the Coastal Regulation Zone
Notification 1991, paves the way for the proliferation of SEZs, ports,
tourist resorts, mining and other activities in the coastal zone. It
also proposes to condone all the violations by commercial interests
that have taken place since 1991.
The coastal communities say the new Notification will affect the
coastal habitat, livelihoods, eco systems, resources and compromise
their rights. Despite these concerns, MOEF is trying to get the draft
notified as soon as possible. Media sources say it has already got an
approval from the Planning Commission to seek Rs 500-crore aid from the
World Bank. Civil Society Organizations have expressed concern about
this draconian notification and the impending threat to the coastal
zone.
In a retrograde step, the Karnataka State Assembly has amended the
Karnataka Agricultural Produce
Marketing Act to allow private players
enter the agricultural sector in a big way. Such amendments by the
State governments to the APMC Act, which controls the terms on which
agricultural produce is procured in markets across the country, now
enable large industrial houses to build their own supply chains, which
is at the heart of the retail revolution.
The
Doha Development Round of WTO
has failed yet again. The rich
nations' club, OECD, provides $280 billion of support to its farmers.
WTO permits the US alone to offer $48 billion of overall
trade-distorting support (OTDS). EU is allowed 110 billion euros. Yet,
they are pushing developing countries for a steep reduction in
agricultural tariffs, far in excess of the 36 per cent cut offered by
G-20 countries. Read more in the article by
Amit Mitra in TOI.
Read on ... more on the
debates on doctors turning to be terrorists or turning to radical
Islam, the fabric of the 'successful' city, urbanism.
[Issues in Focus Click here]
[What's new | What's news at CED Click
here]
select clippings
Draft
coastal management notification faces
protests: Fisher folk across
India's 7,500 km long coastline are
up in arms against the draft Coastal Zone Management Notification. The
coastal communities say the notification does not acknowledge their
traditional rights and can damage the coasts and the people. The draft,
prepared by the Union ministry of environment and forests (moef), will
soon be forwarded to the Prime Minister for his approval.
Nidhi
Jamwal, Down to Earth Magazine, July 19,
2007
Karnataka allows contract farming: Karnataka
has opened the doors for contract farming and entry of major players
into trade in agricultural commodities. The state Assembly amended the
Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing Act to allow private players
to enter the agricultural sector in a big way. IANS,
Yahoo News, July 18, 2007
Retail invasion: Big Business is taking control of the supply
chain in India, and there is growing uneasiness among people who depend
on
retailing for livelihoods. In the name of eliminating the much-abused
"middleman", they have already established niches in urban India and
are aggressively expanding their operations. Frontline's reportage from across
the country documents the growing unease among different sections of
society depending on retailing for their livelihoods.V.Sridhar,
Frontline, June 30, 2007
Break
WTO Deadlock: India
has a strong case in opposing trade-distorting agricultural subsidies
of the US and EU. The quantum of this subsidy is mind-boggling and
therefore Kamal Nath(India's Commerce and Industry Minister) has been
unrelenting, arm in arm with Celso Amorim(Brazil's Foreign Minister)
and supported strongly by the major developing countries of
G-20. In the absence of any concrete and matching benefits for
India, it does not make sense to accept a half-baked solution for the
Doha Development Round. Amit Mitra,
Times of India, July 04, 2007
Debate or denial - the Muslim dilemma:
Judging from much of the Muslim reaction to the latest Islamist outrage
- last month's attempted bombings in London and Glasgow - the community
seems to have talked itself into a default position in relation to
violent Muslim extremism. The same old arguments are being flogged
again betraying an unwillingness to acknowledge either the scale of the
problem or its nature. The fear of making the community or Islam look
bad has created a strange silence aroun d issues that lie at the heart
of the Islamism debate. Hasan Suroor,
Hindu, July 17, 2007
That Side
of the Street:
For the past quarter-century, Indian politicians have been obsessed
with transforming their cities into a futuristic elsewhere: Bal
Thackeray's 1980s vision of Mumbai as Chicago, the current ambition to
make Mumbai the Shanghai of tomorrow, the desire to bring Manhattan to
Marine Drive and to reshape Bangalore or Hyderabad as Singapore. It
seems a pity that India, land of villages, cannot invent or imagine a
city that is Indian, without reference to some gilded outstation of
fantasy. Now that more than half the world's population is urban, the
'heart' of a country is no longer to be sought in the rural areas. Jeremy
Seabrook, Outlook, July
16, 2007
Uses of urban land: Most of
what
should be public space in Delhi is devoted to creating spaces where
people go to make purchases. The real reason why this proliferation of
malls is so disturbing is because of what it tells us about the public
policy choices with respect to urban space. This shows more than a
general lack of imagination - it is actually a constriction of even the
possibilities of human activity, with the notion of leisure (for those
who can afford it) being reduced to shopping and watching movies in
multiplexes. Jayati Ghosh,
Frontline, July 13, 2007
India makes climate change move:
India has taken the first steps towards developing a national plan on
tackling the effects of climate change. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
chaired a meeting of top government officials and environmental experts
which agreed to draft a national policy by October. Sanjoy
Majumder, BBC News, Delhi, July 13, 2007
The debate on the Open Space:
The achievements of the U.S. Social Forum experience contribute a
great deal to debates concerning the future of the overall World Social
Forum (WSF) process. In a recent set of interventions Walden Bello and
Chico Whitaker, both representatives on the International Council of
the WSF, disagreed on the future of the Forum. The USSF
demonstrated the accuracy of both Bello and Whitaker's arguments,
affirming the importance of continuing the Social Forum process but on
much more innovative, decisive, political ground. Thomas
Ponnaiah, WSF discussion list,
July 13, 2007
[Issues in Focus Click here]
[Select Clippings Click here]
what's new | what's news at CED
|New Publications
from CED|
Fascism
& Communalism: Considerations by Sandeep Pendse[pp 167, Rs. 240]
This book
examines the question in some detail essentially for the general,
non-specialist reader. It dwells on the specificity of the
Gujarat Carnage as well as the characteristics of the Sangh Parivar. It
also explores the essential distinguishing traits of fascism - as a
generic movement. It then seeks to compare the classic fascist
organizations and the Sangh Parivar.
Development Governance
by Meena Dhodade[pp
28, Rs.40]
The study attempts to
examine these aspects of Panchayati Raj - whether the Gram Sabha
and Gram Panchayats really function as agencies for the upliftment of
the depressed classes or whether they serve as a vehicle for the
realisation of genuine self-governance.
Write to CED for copies.
Special
discounts available for members.
|New Video
Capsules at CED|
Shanti - Century, Not
Out [TAMIL, 33 min 13 sec, PAL-VCD] A film on a
striking example of community awareness efforts by Shanthi, which led
to the construction of 200 Ecosan toilets in a tsunami affected village
in South India. The film depicts how Shanthi, in spite of losing her
house to the tsunami was not bogged down by her circumstances, but
instead chose to start a revolution of sorts. The film showcases how
the entire process of constructing Ecosan toilets has strengthened the
process of Shanthi's empowerment and improved the quality of life of
other villagers.
The tale of dried
up river beds! [KANNADA,
23 min, PAL-VCD] An
interview with D.M.Chitrashekar, Area
Officer, SVARAJ (Society for Voluntary Action Revitalization and
Justice), Bangalore.
In the interview Chitra Shekhar talks about the importance of
'rainwater harvesting'. He also explains:
- The economics and politics of rivers and water
- The NGOs' and the government's role in restoration of water bodies
- Efforts in and around Doddaballapur, Bangalore to spread awareness
about
rainwater harvesting and water conservation
- Why people disapprove rainwater harvesting when NGOs approach them.
CDs available
at CED
|CED's Monthly
Compilations|
Just to remind you of Docposts
(DPs) - our monthly outputs: Legal
Rights | Critical
Concerns | Habitat
| Disasters
Centre for Education and Documentation
3, Suleman Chambers, 4 Battery Street, Colaba, Mumbai 400001.
ph:
(022)22020019. cedbom@doccentre.net
7, 8th Main, 3rd Phase, Domlur 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560071. Ph:
(080)25353397. cedban@doccentre.net
