In 2008, for the first time ever, the urban population of the world outnumbered that of the rural. This visible trend has escalated over the last couple of decades; projections suggest that by the end of the twenty-first century, 80 percent of the world’s population will live in cities (which occupy 0.05 percent of the Earth’s surface).

Primary wholesale markets, or mandis, are critical nodes in India’s agricultural marketing and distribution system. As such, they are key elements of contention in vital debates regarding the future of Indian agriculture, the challenges of ensuring food security and managing food inflation, and to growing questions about the character and control of the nation’s diversifying foodways.

Kerala is widely acclaimed for its achievements in social development as it boasts a near total literacy, comparatively higher life expectancy, and land reforms. Even though its per capita income has remained low, this phenomenon has famously become known as the “Kerala Model of Development.” However, the exclusion of Dalits who constitute 9.8 percent of the state’s total population, Adivasis, who constitute 1.14 percent, and fisher people from the success story of Kerala’s development, has gone relatively unacknowledged.

“Technology magnifies human intent and capacity.” – Dr. Kentaro Toyama

Knowledge of the spatial nature of one’s surroundings is essential for resource use, environmental management, allocation of land rights and diplomatic relations with other communities. Obtaining and recording geographic information is an essential component of community functioning. Processing this information and making robust decisions is critical to the continued existence of a community, whether it is a small nomadic tribe or a nation the size of India.

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom; it was the age of foolishness. While the current dynamics of coal may not match the intrigue and tumult of A Tale of Two Cities, the initial sentiments certainly reflect how things are shaping up in the sector. Recently, newspapers were all abuzz with Coal India’s emergence as the country’s “most valued company” in terms of market capitalization.

India has two diametrically opposed problems when it comes to antibiotics: many people die because they do not have access to antibiotics, while others contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance when they overuse these drugs in situations where antibiotic use is not warranted. Antibiotic resistant bacteria can withstand treatment with one or more antibiotics, and antibiotic use paves the way for these bacterial strains to spread by selectively killing off bacteria that are not resistant.

Do recent events and the logic of the past indicate that we are at the beginning of a shift in policy by India’s neighbors from attempting to “balance” India to “bandwagoning” with India over the long run? Why do India’s neighbors, particularly Pakistan, but also to a lesser extent Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, not bandwagon with the region’s largest and fastest-growing economy for their own interests?

Of “Traitors” and “Angels” Abroad

Street vendors occupying public spaces such as pavements, parks, and thoroughfares, and thereby appearing to deny access to their “rightful” users has been, over the years, a highly contentious issue in major cities across the globe. Addressing the problem of “hawking” generally involves a range of complex and interlinked issues such as the informal economy, rural-urban linkages in commodity production and marketing, survival of the urban poor, urban renewal and middle-class politics, changing street cultures, shopping as well as selling behavior, and commodity circulations.

The 250 million forest-dependent people in India have been victims of major historical injustices such as continuation of repressive colonial forest laws and are amongst the poorest in the country. To empower forest communities, India has passed two historic laws in the last 15 years. However, their effects on the ground have been disappointing. While all of this sounds desultory, a number of “transformations” have been taking place recently, which if harnessed properly, could significantly better the lives of these communities.

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