Happy New Year 2011

Thought of the day - 27th December 2010

If we want to bring a lasting and positive change in the society, we have to be passionately persistent in our endeavours…

Ranjan Panda

Thought of the day - 26th December 2010

Your right to selfishness necessarily comes with your responsibility of becoming selfless…

Ranjan Panda

Photos - Weekend Shoot, Christmas 2010

My Photo Album - Weekend Shoot, Christmas 2010 !

Balancing Act...

So what if I am neglected by this great nation; I am happy, I feed it...

Saathi haath badhana...

The return at end of a day's work...

After six months of hard labour, what the farmers get is pittance...

White grass...

Each creation of Mother Nature is beautiful...

Mother at work...

This Album is my gift to friends on Christmas.  Be blessed and have a great year in 2011 !

Ranjan Panda

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2011

Thought of the day - 24th December 2010

Directing all your thoughts towards your SELF and investing all your energies in it is a violation of the natural laws of your existence…

Ranjan Panda 

Thought of the day - 20th December 2010

Out there, in the lap of Mother Nature, what you always get is peace of mind and a reminder of your real existence…

Ranjan Panda

A not-so-clean development mechanism

Features

A not-so-clean development mechanism

Titled “Improving Rural Livelihoods through Carbon Sequestration by Adopting Environment-Friendly Technology-based Agroforestry Practices”, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Odisha aims at mobilizing resource-poor farmers to raise tree plantations on farmlands. It also seeks to link resource-poor farmers and end users of wood products in order to optimize land use and to facilitate the coordination of wood producers, agronomists, financial institutions, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to improve the livelihood opportunities of rural households. Further, the project’s background paper claims that it will be implemented on degraded farmlands or lands used for rainfed subsistence agriculture. The project is presently under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) validation and will be funded by the World Bank’s Bio Carbon Fund. The CDM project has projected an estimated annual reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the tune of 324,269 metric tonnes. It will be implemented in 333 villages in 6 districts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, covering some of the poorest districts of India, such as Rayagada, Koraput, and Kalahandi in Odisha and Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, and Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh. These districts are pre-dominated by indigenous population, notified as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in India, with the majority of them being poor. So, the project aims at double empowerment—fighting climate change and, that too, in some of the poorest pockets of the country. The specific objectives of the project include pilot reforestation activities for high-quality greenhouse gas removal by sinks, which can be measured, monitored, and verified; developing plantation and agro-forestry models, which can provide multiple benefits to farmers in terms of timber, firewood, and non-wood forest products; providing additional income to promote livelihoods to resource-poor farmers through carbon revenues; and so on—all of which is going to make it an ideal CDM project. Contrasting reality However, the experiences of the people of Kauguda village in the Kalahandi district of Odisha prove that this is just another CDM project that would generate more profit for the company, than the people. Rather, as situation stand today, they are likely to become further deprived. In a place where climate change is already taking its toll, by increasing the number of drought years, for instance, this project may doubly affect the people. This also raises doubts on the effectiveness of afforestation and reforestation projects such as this one under the CDM. Meet Dinabandhu Gand, a poor and marginal farmer, who owns two acres and twenty decimals of land in the village, which he never left fallow. Although he does not know anything about the CDM project, going by the project documents, he is probably listed as one of the proposed beneficiaries of the CDM project. Dinabandhu’s farm never failed him, and like many farmers in this belt of Odisha, he has been practising local crop diversity-based ecological farming. “Besides paddy, we also grow cereals, pulses, millets, and vegetables, and this is enough for my family of three for the whole year. We even earn cash by selling black gram, til (sesame), and vegetables”, he informs. “However, ours is a drought-prone area and the fate of our agriculture depends on the rain god”, he adds.  Still, he somehow managed, by practising agriculture based on drought-resistant crops. Five years back, an official from the JK Paper Mills visited him and asked him to abandon this kind of agriculture and grow eucalyptus instead. “They said that I would earn at least Rs 60,000–70,000 per acre if I raise eucalyptus”, he said. The company officials promised that they will provide very good quality saplings and would continuously visit his fields for at least two years to help him in the technicalities, which are required to be maintained during the initial couple of years, and then, keep in touch with him on a regular basis. “They said that I could harvest three crops in 12 years on a four-year cycle and each time, the company will lift the wood from my field”, he added. So, he abandoned agriculture and started forestry to provide raw material for the company’s paper mill. The company helped him to obtain a loan of Rs 50,000 from the local branch of a regional rural bank. “Out of it, the bank gave Rs 30,000 to the company directly, and the company gave me 4000 seedlings in lieu of that. I spent the rest, and even a couple of thousand more, in preparing the field and initially, on fertilizer, manure, labour, and other such inputs. The next year, I spent another Rs 5000 for bush cutting, weeding, and so on”, he said, with tearful eyes. By then, he was left with no money and no way of growing anything else on his fields. So, the third year, he did everything himself. “It was painful and impossible to realize that almost all the saplings died. Out of the 4000 saplings that I received from the company, only 60–70 survived”, rues a saddened Dinabandhu, who then had to flee to Mumbai to work as a construction worker. He returned to his village a year and a half ago, and with help of his friends, he started a tea stall. This year, he has brought back the traditional agriculture to his fields. With the earning from the tea stall, he manages to farm. But, he has kept the remaining eucalyptus trees untouched, so that he can tell people about the “conspiracy” of the company to drive people away from agriculture, only to supply raw materials to their mill. “They are here only for their profit. They lied to me. They never came back to me as promised. These tall trees are testimony to the fraud called eucalyptus plantation, with the aim of earning profits for the company”, says an angry Dinabandhu. Technically flawed In the CDM project document, JK Paper Mill has said that it will provide quality planting materials, which they are growing in their nurseries. “The company is indulging in false propaganda. It has built a nexus with the bank, which deducts the loan at source, to be given to the company for the seedlings. No doubt these are seedlings, but ordinary ones, for which they charge too much. Earlier, people used to get free eucalyptus seedlings from the forest department, and that was much better”, says Dipak Mahapatra, ex-Panchayat Samiti member. “We do not know anything about this CDM project, as the company never discusses any plan. Earlier, they were targeting big farmers, which was not a problem, as big farmers have the ability to cope with the shock.  But, for some years now, they are targeting small farmers, who are so marginalized that any false promise of good income lures them to this kind of cultivation, and when they fail, they have no other option but to commit suicide”, he adds, informing how farmers in this area have suffered the same way in the case of cotton and maize cultivation. B K Rath, General Manager, Forests at the JK Paper Mills, who is dealing with this project, has a different picture to paint. He says, “For this project, we have obtained a strict agreement between the mill and the farmers, whereby no one could cheat...Since the project’s validation process is taking too long, people have lost patience, and in many places, they are cutting their trees. Going by the agreement, we should actually take them to court, but, we would not do so, as they are poor farmers”. However, after interacting with the villagers, one can clearly see that the claims made by the project document about the land use patterns are completely wrong. “Villagers here are good farmers. They manage to grow their food even in drought years, as they still practise organic agriculture in most of the villages, and the forests—which they protect like sacred groves—provide the required supplementary assistance. The company’s analysis of the land status, where it considers all our land as either barren or put to subsistence farming is completely wrong”, argues Mahapatra. Asked about carbon sequestration through eucalyptus plantation, he narrates, “I am a layman on these things, but I cannot understand if there is a very good natural forest here, which can provide the timber, why a killer tree such as eucalyptus should be promoted, that too, to be harvested?” “The eucalyptus sucks water from the nearby areas and does more damage to the environment than good”, says Prof. Arttabandhu Mishra, a retired professor from Sambalpur University, who has done extensive research on the environmental impacts of this tree. Dinabandhu confirms it in his own way when he says, “When I started my agriculture afresh after returning from Mumbai, I realized that the water retention capacity of my fields had reduced by almost 50%. Now, whenever I irrigate my land, the water vanishes in no time”. Also, the company’s claim to ensure a market for the products has also proved wrong.  Almost all the eucalyptus growers of the area complain that the company has not kept its promise in this regard. “Middlemen take the produce from us, and not the company.  So, even when people get a good harvest, the middlemen take away the profit”, says Laxman Majhi, a tribal leader belonging to the Adivasi Sangrami Manch, a forum of tribals in the region. According to him, the monoculture being promoted in the name of good profit is proving disastrous for the farmers. Contrary to what the company claims, Majhi and others feel that cultivating eucalyptus actually means leaving the land fallow for 12–15 years. “I do not know what they have written in their project, but if they think that our lands are barren, they should come and see, that for the profit of their companies, our farmers have to keep their productive lands barren for more than a decade. You cannot do anything when eucalyptus is cultivated, as it makes the soil acidic and nothing else grows”, complains Majhi. What is even more important is the income-generation ability of eucalyptus. As Majhi puts it, “In this case, you wait for four years to get some benefit, while in our traditional way of farming, you earn each year, which keeps your family rolling”. According to Dr William Stanley, Executive Secretary, Orissa Development Action Forum, a national-level forum of civil society organizations working on climate change and related issues, “Analysis by our member organizations working in the area confirms that even when farmers are assured of a harvest (though not the price), they have to keep the land fallow, for all practical purposes, for at least 12–15 years, so as to harvest three cycles of plants. So, even if someone was to fetch the maximum price of Rs 60,000 per acre in the minimum term of 12 years, it would work out to be Rs 5000 per year. Deduct the operation and management cost and it comes to about Rs 3000 a year. In the same land, even if someone goes for subsistence agriculture, it would fetch the farmer at least Rs 6000, considering six quintals of paddy (the least that even a barren land in a forested area can produce)”. In fact, experts from around the globe have already criticized the afforestation and reforestation projects under the CDM on these grounds.  “As such, the CDM has been used as a business mechanism to benefit corporates and financers. The project that this paper mill proposed should have ideally been rejected, as it is technically flawed, owing to the promotion of commercial monoculture, which actually does not do any good to the environment”, argues Dr Stanley. In August 2010, during the XXIII International Union of Forest Research Organization’s World Congress, Prof. M Danesh Mian of the University of Chittagong said, “There are potential benefits of afforestation/reforestation credits, but I caution that alien species may arrive via the plantation process.”  In the same congress, Jürgen Bauhus of the University of Freiburg said, “There are conflicts between silviculture, which aims to enhance select forest functions, and nature conservation, which aims to maintain an ecosystem’s historic conditions”. We have received reports from the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), which say that just over 60% of the world’s planted forests are now located in Asia. The rapid expansion of planted forest cover in the region in recent years is largely due to large-scale forestation programmes, especially in China, Vietnam, and India. Planted forests are often troubled by social conflicts, especially when they prohibit rural households from using the land important for their livelihoods. Even when local people are enlisted by the state to participate in government-led planting programmes, strict control of their land-use options tends to undermine their enthusiasm for maintaining the planted forest lots. “Worldwide, it has been proved that natural forests, if preserved, can be the best carbon sinks. The company would anyway do what it is doing in the name of CDM, only to earn extra profit and get international finance. This will lead to further conflicts, as people will virtually be alienated from their land. These are some of the reasons why such projects are being criticized”, says Dr Stanley. “The fact is that this CDM project promotes agro-forestry to provide raw material to a company that itself emits 288,701 metric tonnes/annum of greenhouse gases (that too, as estimated by the company). This figure cannot be believed anyway; coming from a company that has been getting notices from the state pollution control board for not adhering to pollution control norms,” he alleges. As Prof. Mishra puts it, “In fact, traditional agro-forestry cannot only be a carbon sink, but it can also save agriculture from climate variations, and enhance soil fertility and the water retention ability of the agricultural lands. In the case of eucalyptus, on the contrary, soil fertility goes down and water resources dry up. Globally, most of the CDM projects that come up for review are these kinds of projects, which confirm that these projects are not beneficial and should not be promoted at the cost of the poor”. Ranjan K Panda

Green Hero Award.

Dear All,
I am happy to share with you that I was awarded with 'Green Hero' by NDTV on 7th December at Delhi.  President of India gave away the awards in presence of Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Dr. Prannoy Roy, Dr.R.K.Pachauri and others in a packed Hall of Hotel Taj Palace in New Delhi.  Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra(NDTV's green ambassador) & Vikram Chandra hosted the ceremonies. Kailash Kher stunned the audience with his song dedicated to the NDTV Greenies. I thank you all for your good wishes and support.  Hope environment's soldiers like me will get more friends and supporters.

Ranjan Panda 

Thought of the day - 4th December 2010

We have not created the Mother Nature; rather she has created us.  If we cannot discard this fact, how can we disrespect and destruct her the way we are doing today…

Ranjan Panda

Thought of the day - 2nd December 2010

To catch up with modernity and become dynamic, some people think it is necessary to discard the past and all what we already have; that’s untrue and unreasonable… 

Ranjan Panda

Thought of the day - 1st December 2010

Simplicity is your key to getting accepted everywhere and by everyone; while on the other hand holding a complex nature will make things difficult for you in all situations…

Ranjan Panda

Thought of the day - 30th November 2010

Not adversaries but our attitude to deal with those is important in pursuing our missions…

Ranjan Panda

Today's Pick - Economic Boom Worsened De-industrialisation of LCDs

Published on Friday, November 26, 2010 

Economic Boom Worsened De-industrialisation of LDCs

by Isolda Agazzi

GENEVA - Least developed countries (LDCs) in Africa did not use the commodity export boom of the mid-2000s to diversify their economies from commodity dependence to manufacturing value-added products. Significantly, the agricultural sector has also not benefited, with the result that LDC reliance on imported food has become even worse.

A Burkina Faso rubbish dump. A UN report estimates that the number of people living in extreme poverty has doubled globally in the last 30 years. (Image: Marco Bellucci)

These are some of the findings of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which released its 2010 report on least developed countries (LDCs), entitled "Towards a new international development architecture for LDCs", on Nov 25.
Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, UNCTAD secretary-general, referred at the launch of the report to the average growth rate of seven percent per year that least developed countries (LDCs) experienced during the boom period of 2002- 2007.
"But higher commodity prices -- of mainly oil and gas -- have not solved the issues of price fluctuation and dependence on commodity export," he noted. This pattern of growth is "non-sustainable" and "non-inclusive".

"Globalisation has not treated everyone equally," added Zeljka Kozul-Wright, chief of the LDCs section at UNCTAD. "LDCs are on the losing side because of their dependence on commodities export. During the boom period, dependence on commodities export increased while manufacturing sectors declined.

"This issue of de-industrialisation is a major concern for us."

Panitchpakdi pointed out that one of the reasons for LDCs’ economic woes has been excessively rapid market opening: "In order to benefit from full liberalisation, governments have to implement industrial policies.

"In Africa, countries under structural adjustment programmes could not have industrial policies and therefore there was no preparation of industries for them to benefit from liberalisation. In Zambia, for example, there has been a complete demise of the textile industry. Liberalisation must be (correctly) sequenced," he added.

For Kozul-Wright, Asian LDCs have succeeded in diversifying more than African ones, especially with regards labour-intensive manufactures. But that approach also has its problems because today they cannot increase their value addition. "The promotion of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ development strategy has not helped," she said.

The consequence of these problems has been an increase in poverty. The report estimates that the number of people in extreme poverty in LDCs increased by three million annually during the boom years, reaching an estimated 421 million in 2007 – twice as many as in 1980.

This figure represents 53 percent of the total population of the LDCs, where one billion people are expected to be living in 2017.

During the same time, "food import dependence has been devastating", said Panitchpakdi, rising from nine billion dollars in costs in 2002 to 24 billion dollars in 2008.

Believing that "business as usual will not deliver inclusive growth in the LDCs", UNCTAD proposes a "New International Economic Architecture" that goes beyond aid and trade to include technology, commodities and climate change.

In the area of finance, UNCTAD bemoans the shortfall of 23 billion dollars per year in official development assistance and advocates a balanced distribution of aid between social uses and productive capacity.

It proposes innovative ways of financing and supports co-financing initiatives with the private sector, particularly in the field of infrastructure. Debt relief programmes will have to be enhanced in the post-crisis situation, as the number of heavily indebted LDCs is on the rise.

Regarding trade, UNCTAD reiterated the call for "an early harvest in the Doha Round for LDCs, with measures such as 100 percent duty-free and quota-free market access and conditionalities being minimised".

On the question of whether the Doha Round would not exacerbate de- industrialisation in LDCs, Panitchpakdi answered that it "depends on the ultimate composition of the final deal of the Round.

"In NAMA (the non-agricultural market access negotiations) we have to be able to maintain the (original) developmental perspective of the Round to help countries diversify; get value addition; deal with tariff peaks and escalation; and eliminate all trade distortions. We should not add and add agendas in NAMA."

As for commodities, the report suggests rethinking the way counter-cyclical financing is done to cope with the adverse effects of fluctuating prices. Counter-cyclical financing is financing that does not follow the current predominant economic cycle.

There is a need for transaction tax on trade in commodity derivatives (financial instruments linked to future prices of underlying assets) and for more schemes to deal with the stabilisation of commodity prices. Panitchpakdi indicated concern over the excess of liquidity driving up the prices of maize and wheat in 2010.

In the field of technology, the World Trade Organisation’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement should be carefully looked at, for it has not been implemented in a way that benefit developing countries.

Industrialised states have to adopt policies to incentivise technology transfer to LDCs. It is a moral obligation, not a legal one, but the agreement does not specify incentives, according to UNCTAD.

Finally, in the area of climate change -- where LDCs contribute only one percent of total greenhouse emissions, but suffer most heavily from the consequences -- an adequate financing of the already existing mechanisms is necessary.

"Cutting across all these measures is the need for LDCs to work more with fellow countries from the South," Panitchpakdi reiterated, like many times before.

"They should benefit more from South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation with the North. The new global governance cannot be dominated by powerful countries, like in the Group of 20. LDCs must participate in global governance."

Source: Inter Press Service.

Thought of the day - 27th November 2010

The journey from self to society is that from darkness to light...

Ranjan Panda

My Photos - 26th November 2010

Album: Different Strokes...

Appearance...

Tired...

Pointillism...

Inviolable...

Inept...

Edgewise...

Day to Day Life...

Day to Day Life...

Thought of the day - 26th November 2010

Inspirational gurus of our days motivate us to live today to the fullest as if tomorrow doesn’t exist.  Making this an attitude will be detrimental to our harmonious co-existence with nature; hence fatal…

Ranjan Panda

Profit from poor.

Dear All,


Please click the following link to read this reality piece on Microfinance companies and the devastating acts they are doing. The situation is same in Odisha too.


Thanks and regards,


Ranjan

Water Initiatives Odisha: Fighting water woes, combating climate change... more than two decades now !

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/2256

Profit from the poor
Author(s): Richard Mahapatra, Arnab Pratim Dutta
Source: Down To Earth, Issue: Nov 30, 2010
Fifty-four suicides in Andhra Pradesh have blown the lid off the social posturing by microfinance companies. Before the news of the deaths sank in, the country feted Vikram Akula, head of SKS Micro-finance, as the new messiah of microcredit. A 273 per cent growth in loan disbursement and returns to investors made him a national hero. India’s micro-finance institutions claim they followed the fabled Grameen Bank model of Bangla desh. In reality, they went against its principles. And the government did not do enough; regulations are fleeting and they don’t touch where it hurts most: the high interest rates.

Orissa high court blow for Vedanta | Down To Earth

Orissa high court blow for Vedanta | Down To Earth

Panel to review Posco project - Hindustan Times

Panel to review Posco project - Hindustan Times

Thought of the day - 25th November 2010

Ecology is the only religion and ideology that one can follow blindly.  For anything else on the earth, if we are blind followers, we cannot claim ourselves educated & conscious…

Ranjan Panda

Climate Change News: Global.

Greenhouse Gases At Record Levels: UN Agency

Date: 25-Nov-10

Author: Jonathan Lynn

A sunset is seen in the background of a chimney of a concrete factory in Hanoi, Vietnam, April 19, 2010.
Photo: Reuters/Kham

Concentrations of the main greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached their highest level since pre-industrial times, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday.

Concentrations of the gases continued to build up in 2009 -- the latest year of observations -- despite the economic slowdown, the U.N. weather agency said in its latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.

Rises in the amount of greenhouse gases increase radiation in the atmosphere, warming the surface of the Earth and causing climate change.

"The main long-lived greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have reached their highest recorded levels since the beginning of the industrial age, and this despite the recent economic slowdown," WMO Deputy Secretary-General Jeremiah Lengoasa told a briefing.

The findings will be studied at a U.N. meeting in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29 to December 10 to discuss climate change.

Total radiative forcing of all long-lived greenhouse gases -- the balance between radiation coming into the atmosphere and radiation going out -- increased by 1.0 percent in 2009 and rose by 27.5 percent from 1990 to 2009, the WMO said.

The growth rates for carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide were smaller than in 2008, but this had only a marginal impact on the long-lasting concentrations.

It would take about 100 years for carbon dioxide to disappear from the atmosphere if emissions stopped completely.

Carbon dioxide is the single most important greenhouse gas caused by human activity, contributing 63.5 percent of total radiative forcing. Its concentration has increased by 38 percent since 1750, mainly because of emissions from burning fossil fuels, deforestation and changes in land use, the WMO said.

Natural emissions of methane due for example to the melting of the Arctic icecap or increased rainfall on wetlands -- themselves caused by global warming -- are becoming more significant, it said.

This could create a "feedback loop" in which global warming releases large quantities of methane into the atmosphere which then contribute to further global warming.

These natural emissions could be the reason why methane has increased in the atmosphere over the past three years after nearly a decade of no growth, the WMO said.

Human activities such as cattle-rearing, rice planting, fossil-fuel exploitation and landfills account for 60 percent of methane emissions, with natural sources accounting for the rest.

Source: Reuters.

    

Climate Change and Agriculture.

Climate Kills 

Vegetable farming in Odisha is worst hit by the continuing heat.  As the winter is yet to set in, crops will have both retarded growth and increased pest attack.  

Ranjan Panda

Water Initiatives Odisha: Fighting water woes, combating climate change... more than two decades now!

Thought of the day - 24th November 2010

The hundreds of justifications one cooks, in following the falsehood, are false.  On the other hand, one needs no justification to follow truthfulness...

  

Ranjan Panda

NDTV Green Awards.

Dear Friends and Well Wishers,

Greetings!

I am happy to share with you that the NDTV (one of India's premier news channels) just informed me that I am one of the finalists for NDTV's first national Greenies Award.  

The NDTV 24x7, their English news channel, is showing profile of our work through out the day today in most of their news.  

The programme narrates about the participatory approaches of water harvesting models we have been propagating at very low cost for drought proofing western Odisha.  It also shows the lobby and advocacy works we have been facilitating.

Hope you can find time to watch that and encourage us.

Thanks for all your love, support and good wishes which has helped us reach here.

With regards,

Ranjan Panda

Water Initiatives Odisha: Fighting water woes, combating climate change... more than two decades now!

Thought of the day - 23rd November 2010

A break is a good opportunity to build…

Ranjan Panda

Yet another woman farmer ends life.

Dear All,

Adding to the shame on our state, another woman farmer ends her life.

Dileswari Patel, a 40 year old farmer from Purnapani village in Kuchinda block, consumed poison owing to crop failure.  Dileswari had taken up farming of paddy on 10 acres but due to failed monsoon she was hopeful of harvesting only on one and half acres.  Reports said she had taken loan from various sources including Microfinance and Kisan Credit Card. 

On 26th of August, not very far from Kuchinda, in Phalsabahal village under Jamankira block, another woman farmer Soudamini Naik had committed suicide earning the state a dubious distinction, of first women farmer suicide.  

It is high time the state and its machineries look towards the farmers and other distressed people rather than devoting energy defending environmental crimes of Vedanta, POSCO, JSPL and all such industries.  

Thanks and regards,

Ranjan Panda

Water Initiatives Odisha: Fighting water woes, combating climate change... more than two decades now!

Mobile: +919437050103
Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com, ranjanpanda@yahoo.com

Skype: ranjan.climatecrusader

Blog: http://www.climatecrusaders.blogspot.com/

Thought of the day - 22nd November 2010

Deriving pleasure and deciding actions from listening to self-praise that’s undue is perhaps one the most self-damaging acts human beings do…

Ranjan Panda

Thought of the day - 21st November 2010

Real progress of the society comes when more and more people get jealous of truthful persons, not moneyed ones...

Ranjan Panda

My Photos - 20th November 2010

Today's Pick - Shripad Dhamadhikary's article.

Dear All,


Please read the following link for Shripad's article on the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol in September 2010 brought out by the hydro power industry.  


Ranjan Panda


============== 
http://www.indiatogether.org/2010/nov/opi-protocol.htm

The Protocol of vested interests 
The hydropower industry's Protocol is an inside job - developed by the industry, to be administered by its consultants, who will work closely with project promoters, writesShripad Dharmadhikary. 

Thought of the day - 20th November 2010

At life’s cross roads, when you face tough tests, remember that God has already taken two decisions for you.  One, you can take only one path; and two, no one else but you have to take that…

Ranjan Panda

My Article - farmer suicides

Special Reports

Soudamini’s ultimate price for debt

On 26 August 2010, for the first time in Orissa, a  woman farmer committed suicide. The reason was  the fear of not being able to pay back the loans that  she had taken for tilling her land, as her crop had failed.  Ranjan K Panda brings to fore the issues underlying this  case; issues that hold true not only for one case or state, but, perhaps, for the entire nation.

Source: http://terragreen.teriin.org/index.php?option=com_terragreen&task=detail&section_id=851&category_id=9&issueid=42