Mainstream Weekly

Maldevelopment – Its Sustainable Alternative for India

Subrata Sinha — 2012-05-13T19:52:15Z

This piece was sent sometime ago but could not be used earlier for unavoidable reasons.
Facing the double whammy of climate change and its affluent society-triggered dwindling non-renewable resources, the Indian energy policy is at crossroads! The Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear calamity is leading to a global moratorium on nuclear energy. Japan apart, Europe has opted out of new nuclear power plants. Germany has shut down half its reactors and decided to shut down all by 2022, while the USA has (…)

- 2012

The New Pitfalls

Subrata Sinha — 2009-03-21T21:47:09Z

Communication
It is indeed heartening that a geologist of Subrata Sinha's experience and eminence has highlighted the pitfalls in establishing a chemical hub in Nayachar (Mainstream, February 14, 2009). He has very rightly pointed out the difference in geological setting of the off-shore islands of Singapur which are remnants of the Himalayan arc separated from the mainland by simple sea erosion. Very recent sediments of Nayachar are the end products of erosion of the Himalaya mountain (…)

- March 2009

Pitfalls in the Nayachar Chemical Hub

Subrata Sinha — 2009-02-19T09:37:05Z

A news item was published in the newspapers on February 4 that the Government of India has virtually cleared the Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray Chemical Hub at Nayachar island, just offshore of the original location at Nandigram in the Haldia zone in West Bengal. However, the final green signal awaits vetting by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
The proposed chemical hub envisages a public plus private sector investment of the order of Rs 100,000 crores. The news (…)

- February 2009

Requiem on Singur

Subrata Sinha — 2009-01-26T11:51:26Z

The Singur land acquisition, accompanied by violence and police high-handedness in West Bengal, hit the national headlines in 2007. The forcible land annexation for the benefit of the Tata corporate group provoked a revolt by the local farming community. This spread to active protest by virtually all sectors of urban civil society, marking a landmark episode in independent India. Thereafter, resistance to land acquisition is frequently occurring in many a State, including Haryana, Orissa, (…)

- January 2009

Unique Chronicle of a ‘Barefoot' Engineer's Experiences of Floods in North Bihar

Subrata Sinha — 2008-12-21T16:40:40Z

BOOK REVIEW
Trapped! Between the Devil and Deep Waters by Dr Dinesh Kumar Mishra; published by People's Science Institute, Dehradun and South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDARP), New Delhi; 2008; pages 206; Rs 595.
The book is a culmination of Dr Dinesh Mishra's down-to-earth understanding of the flood problems not only of the Kosi but the entire linked-up river network of North Bihar—that even involves Nepal. This unique chronicle depicts the personal experiences of a (…)

- December 20, 2008 - Annual Number 2008

Irrigation Alternative—An Analysis

Subrata Sinha — 2008-09-23T11:50:30Z

The colonial legacy has been haunting India even sixty years after independence. The British had cunningly devised the PWD and finance codes for all construction activities for Indians to instill a sense of guilt, besides sapping national pride and integrity. Yet, none of these basic working rules have been altered to adjust to an independent nation! Possibly the Indian rulers want to continue in a neo-colonial, master- servant mode!
The rules call for multiple quotations for all (…)

- September 20, 2008

Singur—Sowing Problems

Subrata Sinha — 2008-09-10T11:27:18Z

Singur is once again in the news. In this context we reproduce, with due acknowledgment, the following article published in Hindu Business Line (January 29, 2007) that gave a different dimension of the Singur problem barely highlighted, if at all, in the media.
Cultivated food is the most vital human survival necessity. Yet, the global scenario is indeed bleak. Food production has failed to keep pace with the burgeoning population! Even the ‘Save The Earth' report for the Rio Summit (…)

- September 6, 2008