Governance

Forwarded to the portal by: Biswanath Sinha, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust Water MOVES is a quarterly published by Soci

Below Poverty Line (BPL) households in India are made to cough up about Rs 9,000 million as bribe to avail basic and need based public services. The TII-CMS India Corruption Study 2007 focused on BPL households, mostly in rural India. The coverage of this study includes all parts of the country. The study, like the earlier ones is based on CMS-PEE model where the scope is not only limited to perceptions about corruption in general, but perception in specific context of a service and, more importantly, actual experience of paying bribe by BPL households in availing one or more of the 11 selected public services. Depending on frequency of interaction, the eleven services are divided broadly into "basic services" (PDS, Hospital Service, School Education (up to 12th), Electricity Service and Water Supply Service) and "need based services" (Land Records / Registration, Housing Service, Forest, NREGS, Banking Service and Police Service (traffic and crime). This round of India Corruption Study 2007 is designed and conducted by Centre For Media Studies(CMS) in collaboration with the Transparency International India (TII). The CMS methodology for the study involved household level sample survey, exit interviews at service delivery outlets, discussions with the concerned "service providers"in each case and observations on display of information at the service delivery points. Read more on the Corruption Study's take on the Water Supply Services in India

Parineeta Dandekar's earlier post on environmental flows, triggered several responses and we have initiated a discussion forum

Shri Anupam Mishra, Gandhian and environmentalist is a remarkable person. He lays no claim to copyright for his own books and (similiar to open source software) it has increased the dissemination of his message. During a recent visit to his office at Gandhi Peace Foundation in New Delhi, he showed several different editions of "Aaj Bhi Khare Hai Talaab" brought out by all kinds of individuals and publishers across the country. He recounts the story of how a impoverished young person was inspired to translate it into Punjabi and get it published.

We at the Water Portal, came up with some questions to ask the builder when you are buying an apartment. The more educated you are regarding the way the apartment is handling water, the better decision you are likely to make and one that will benefit you immensely in the long term.

SaciWATERs, South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies is organising an International Confe

Forwarded to the Portal by : Amrat Singh, PARIVARTAN A new training programme has been launched by Parivartan.

Several threats have emerged in recent years to the pristine Himalayan rivers of Uttarakhand. These include: (i) the proposed construction of 220 dams (ii) the drying up of rain fed rivers due to deforestation and deforestation of their catchments (iii) release of untreated sewage from river side towns and habitations and (iv) illegal sand mining of river beds.

Pained by the unrelenting destruction of the Ganga river, especially by a series of dams in its upper reaches, Dr G.D. Agrawal, India's pre-eminent environmental quality scientist and a legendary Professor (and HoD) of Civil & Environmental Engineering at IIT-Kanpur. (Access:Biography Sketch Here) has decided to go on a fast-unto-death to oppose its continuing desecration. His conviction that we are staring at an unprecedented ecological and cultural catastrophe comes from his powerfully logical mind. Critique on proposed dams on Bhagirathi River. Access here: Critique on Dams

Forwarded to the Portal by : Maj Gen SS Sandhu, Chair SAFRG. The South Asian Fund Raising Group SAFRG is organising the 19th South Asian International Fundraising Workshop (19th SAFRW) will be held at the Jaypee Palace Hotel & Convention Centre, Agra , from 23 to 26 August 2008.