Feature Article

A variety of water reforms are being undertaken in different parts of the country. This paper discusses a project in the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad in north Karnataka, a pilot for 24/7 functioning as well as for the institutional and other changes required for private sector participation in urban areas. April 5-11, 2008

The Internet is a building block of the information society as such its governance is an important issue. What are the issues related to internet governance and how can they be dealt with? How may the Internet Governance Forum contribute to participatory decision-making? These are important issues ahead of the next IGF meeting, to be held in India in end-2008. April 5-11, 2008

This article focuses on the main issues vital for the survival of the International Monetary Fund in the context of rapid and almost revolutionary changes in the world's money and capital markets, the rise of fast growing, emerging economies, and the decline in the use of the institution's resources and consequently in its income. It also discusses the structure of the IMF, the inadequacy of the instruments it currently employs and the new ones being contemplated as part of the Medium-Term Strategy it designed recently. April 5-11, 2008

Every year on March 24, observed as World Tuberculosis Day, India takes stock of the progress of the Directly Observed Treatment Scheme (DOTS), launched as the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) in 1997. The results of the stocktaking are not very encouraging. (Editorial) April 5-11, 2008

Exclosure experiments have demonstrated the effects of bird predation on arthropods. In a Mexican coffee plantation, we excluded foliage-gleaning bird and bat predators from coffee plants. Effects of bats and birds were additive. In the dry season, birds reduced arthropods in coffee plants by 30%; birds and bats together reduced arthropods by 46%.

What plunged the North Pacific

Previous exclosure studies measuring the top-down control of arthropod abundance and herbivory combined the effects of birds and bats. We experimentally partitioned bird predation from bat predation in a lowland tropical forest in Panama and measured the direct effects (arthropod abundance) and indirect effects (herbivory).

Dust plays a critical role in Earth's climate system and serves as a natural source of iron and other micronutrients to remote regions of the ocean. We have generated records of dust deposition over the past 500,000 years at three sites spanning the breadth of the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

Environmental policymaking has been equated with the art of making the right decisions based on an insufficient understanding of the underlying problems.

The debate on the advantages and disadvantages of upgrading the United Nations Environment Programme to a 'world environment organisation' (WEO) has gained momentum in both academe and politics.