Feature Article

An exogenously defined poverty line yields poverty headcounts between any two points in time that are a net outcome of the two-way traffic into and out of poverty. This paper argues that, for the rural Indian context, where housing is too lumpy and illiquid to be used for consumption smoothing, transitions in housing quality in cross-sectional data sets can provide revealed evidence of household perceptions of downside risk to their current consumption levels.

Tertiary care plays an important role in determining the structure of the healthcare system and universal access to it. Breaking away from western-oriented tertiary care medical knowledge, a number of issues have to be rethought to defi ne tertiary care in the Indian setting that can be provided by the existing system. Providing tertiary care with district health services will mutually reinforce both and provide healthcare that is affordable and appropriate to local conditions.

A majority of Indian wildlife scientists are unable to come together to create a united front to add a much-needed conservation focus to policymaking. In an age when we are trying to balance development with protection of forest areas, wildlife biologists need to actively respond to and engage with situations where the wildlife and conservation angles need to be highlighted. They should make the effort to translate science into policy in conjunction with the bureaucracy and actively work towards creating a much-needed platform for collaboration.

A US-based organisation has placed India at as low as 28th among 32 countries in the world with respect to security of nuclear materials. How accurate is the ranking and how justifi ed is the defensive Indian anger at this low ranking?

The Government of India is bent on maligning the struggle against the Koodankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu because it cannot comprehend that ordinary citizens can understand issues and wage a spirited struggle to protect their lives and livelihoods. One of the leaders of the movement writes about their struggle and addresses the allegation that the protests are being funded by foreign organisations.

Supply of research monkeys to Western labs under threat as airlines react to animal-rights campaign.

India’s remarkable growth in science funding — notching up annual increases of about 25% over the past five years — seems finally to have been hit by the global economic downturn.

Conventional environmental assessments are not enough — it is time for some joined-up global thinking, says Mark Stafford Smith.