Feature Article

Europe has been hauling Microsoft to court • The EU is investigating Microsoft's manipulation of votes to get its latest document format OOXML approved at the International Organization of

"While about 65 per cent of servers use foss, about 90 per cent of personal computer users still use Microsoft in India,' says Sunil Abraham, director of Mahiti, a small-scale software enterprise in

New threat to FOSS? The Indian Patent Act, 2005 rejects software patent. Software currently is under copyright laws, giving the developer of a software the right to sell his/her software. It

On May 20, 2003, the department of expenditure issued a notice saying the government should not be biased towards any company while issuing tenders. But the government's preference for proprietary

  A sea of threats

Although a lot more needs to be done to evolve a better strategy for managing the groundwater economy, a copybook transposition of the Californian and Spanish formula as argued in these columns

Mainstreaming gender and engendering development has now become a part of feminist and development discourse. This paper is a case study of the mv Foundation, which has implemented its programme of "Empowering Women through Collective Action' in the Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh.

While making policies and designing disaster recovery programmes, the different gender roles and responsibilities that are socially attributed to men and women should be taken into account. The programmes should focus specifically on the women's component in the general scheme or women-specific schemes. The gender perspective should be incorporated into disaster budgeting in such a way that the vulnerable are catered to according to their specific needs.

The payment of wages into bank accounts for work carried out under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has been suggested as a way to prevent embezzlement of funds. The practice has already begun in a few districts. Is this a foolproof system to control corruption? The early experience from a few blocks in Orissa suggests that this process is not free from its own problems. April 26-May 2, 2008

Global food prices have witnessed an unprecedented surge in recent months. The increase in prices, which initially started with corn and wheat, has now engulfed all cereals, and vegetable oils, meat, milk and most fruits and vegetables. The food price index (base 2005=100) of the International Monetary Fund, which covers a large number of food items, reached 170 in March 2008; the highest value of the index in the past quarter century was 143 in November 1980. (Editorial) April 26-May 2, 2008