Can we be a 'rich' people without doing any of the things that 'rich' countries now do, without the foundations on which they built their progress? That's an important question - because if the answer is no, then our current path to prosperity is in vain, and won't forestall another few decades of poverty and all-round deprivation. The India Together editorial.

A traditional rural residence is almost always based on adaptations to the local environment, and is often built with the labour of the villagers themselves without the need for external mechanised inputs. Surekha Sule reports on the Rural Building Centre, a NIRD initiative showcasing several such homes.

Even if activists and trade unions in India succeed in pushing up wage scales in the garment industry, manufacturers are likely to point out that with higher labour costs and hence billing, the high profit global retail buyers would shift their business to cheaper nations like Bangladesh or Indonesia. Is there a way out? Anuja Mirchandaney finds out more.

While some of the handloom sector's troubles come from the relentless march of mechanisation, modernisation and sophistication, there's more to the troubled weavers' plight, says Narasimha Reddy.

Minimum wage regulations continue to defy the very meaning of what the wage is for. The original premise - wages for people to live with minimum level of economic security, as well as dignity - is gone, its spirit lost in myriad variables that rise from states, sectors, bureaucracies and notifications. The India Together editorial.

The recall of the decommissioned French warship Clemenceau back to France in the wave of protests worldwide opens a great opportunity for India to clean its ship breaking yard in Alang, and improve conditions for its workers. A thorough assessment of facilities at Alang is much needed, notes Ramesh Menon.

With their long history of affiliation to political parties, unions have been unable to articulate the interests of workers independently. Also, a narrow understanding of labour has made them irrelevant to the majority of workers in the unorganised sector. A new formation proposes to tackle these failures. Aparna Pallavi reports.

The introduction of centralised spinning mills in British times reduced the economic benefit that farmers and weavers could obtain. But now it is being asked, can decentralised cloth-making revive old livelihoods? Surekha Sule reports.

As the state clamps its annual ban on trawl boats along the Kerala coast, an old battle rages again, pitting traditional fishermen against trawl-boat owners who view the occupation quite differently. Each side feels that positive intervention by the state is required. M Suchitra and P N Venugopal report.

Kerala's fisheries sector is heading for deep crisis. The sector is already in troubled waters due to over exploitation of marine wealth, unbridled mechanisation and debt traps. Now the clouds of impending import of fish are further darkening the horizon. M Suchitra and P N Venugopal report.

Can transgenic cotton ever be a livelihood security measure for the majority of India's small-holder farmers? Keya Acharya is circumspect. She says that the Bt cotton story in India is one of confusion. Bt appears more to favour 'rich' farmers, who have access to water, better resources, and alternative support.

Crores of taxpayer rupees are spent by government institutes each year on fisheries technology and research. How much does this impact the lives of the average fish hawkers who vend on foot? Is there any impact at all? M Suchitra visited one Kerala hawker, at a coastal village near Kochi.

After three years after a loan disbursal to the Jindal Thermal Power Company Ltd. (Jindal) for a power project in Karnataka, the public-sector Power Finance Corporation has drawn flak from the Comptroller and Auditor General for having offered undue benefits to Jindal and causing a loss of Rs.13.48 crores to itself. Himanshu Upadhyaya digs deeper.

Vocational training could play a key role in bridging the gap that keeps millions of workers in the unorganised economy away from a better future. The needs of informal sector workers are complex, and mere training for income-generation is seen to be insufficient, writes Varupi Jain.

A majority of poor and low-income workers, especially women, are not aware of how to secure their own income using basic skills. Often, they are clueless about using the skills they have tacitly acquired. Varupi Jain on the starting point for development efforts that aim to help them tap their own potential.

India has only 5,100 Industrial Training Institutes and 1,745 polytechnics compared to 5,00,000 similar institutes in China. The USA boasts of 1500 trade training programmes compared to India's 171. A national conference in Delhi this February recommended measures to bridge the yawning gap between growth and jobs, reports Varupi Jain.

The economy in the North East is still largely based on subsistence-oriented farming. There is plenty of frustration arising out of inability to meet modern aspirations. What are the options for people to engage in productive work and earn more money? Surekha Sule has more.

Moments after a customer approaches this cart, the vendor pours tender coconut juice into a funnel-like part. Chilled juice comes out of a stainless steel tap below, filling a 250 ml glass, for Rs.10. Shree Padre reports about Fruit Hut Beverages, a Hyderabad-based firm that has launched the Coco Fresco brand.

A number of implicit and explicit constraints influence the extent to which carts and kiosks work as avenues of creative entrepreneurship. Varupi Jain compares the Indian scenario with that in the US, and notes cultural and social realities that shape the Indian experience.

A new report from TERI, the first of its kind for India, argues that compliance with environmental, social and governance criteria would better differentiate Indian stocks in comparison to issuers from other emerging markets for high quality investors. Rajni Bakshi has more on why India must care.

The origins of today's law for land acquisition for SEZs act can be traced to 1824, when the British colonial power felt the need to codify the undisguised forcible seizure of land. While colonial rule has long gone, the unjust application of the principle of eminent domain remains, writes Kannan Kasturi.

A persistent push to develop large-scale rubber plantations as a livelihood alternative to slash-and-burn cultivation by tribals has resulted in a major economic upswing in Tripura. With market prices for rubber well above sustenance levels, the future looks bright too. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports.

Against the wishes of the local people, and even the State government, a salt factory is proposed to be established on land that has been used freely by 20,000 villagers for decades. In the face of shifting politics, the residents are determined that they will protect their livelihoods. Aparna Pallavi reports.

The Indian economy is creating millions of varied job opportunities. Despite this, scores of educated youth are not readily employable and face a grim future. Companies are struggling to find and retain talent. Ramesh Menon on the challenges.

A new policy framework for hydro-electric power seems to have given confidence to private corporations to enter the sector, with a large number of mega projects lined up. But the same policies raise critical questions in relation to equity and access, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

As the heaps of pineappples grow bigger, prices will go down drastically from Rs.5 to Rs.2 and finally to 50 paise per pineapple, says Priyalal Sharma, a Tripura grower, who has also started rubber plantation in some portion of his land. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports.

New Delhi recently allocated three blocks of coal in Orissa for projects that will produce liquid fuel from coal, in an attempt to increase oil supply. The decision appears to have overlooked a number of critical considerations, say Ananth Chikkatur and Sunita Dubey.

India has made cotton fabrics for 20 centuries, and its scale in India was unimaginable. But modern market structures have pushed millions to the edge, and a few intense efforts, such as those of Dastakar Andhra, are not enough to reverse this. Darryl D'Monte reports.

This Kochi's couple's one-year-old enterprise is perhaps the only serious attempt to market snow ball tender coconut so far. And in their response to irregularity of supply, they introduced the coconut lassi. Shree Padre has more.

The newly announced country assistance strategy for India is the continuation of what the World Bank has been pushing in this country and elsewhere in the last 15 years or so years, with nothing to show for it, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

It is nobody’s case that there is no crisis. But when remedies are prescribed, the diagnosis and the investigation have to be beyond dispute. P N Venugopal critiques a report from the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

The list of new products that corporate India wants to attach the 'rural' tag to has grown quickly. What is at stake here is more than the survival of India's ambitious, if creative, consumer goods manufacturers, writes Rahul Goswami.

There is an urgent need for reliable and transparent consumer price indices that covers the large majority of Indian families, from the poorest upwards. Kannan Kasturi reports.

A conference on September 14-16 this year at New Delhi will bring together political decision makers, representatives from entrepreneurial associations and corporate partners, and civil society to discuss growth in Asia. It is backed by Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Planning Commission of India.

Apart from its high literacy rate, richer natural resources, and green public consciousness, the Kerala Government's decision to go for a green budget this year makes this tiny southernmost state a model to look up to. Darryl D'Monte has more.

The 260-km Sharda Sahayak canal took 32 years to complete, and cost almost 20 times the original estimate. It irrigates only half the area it was supposed to, and has created untold suffering along its path. Puja Awasthi reports.

In the old days, government was responsible for controlling inflation. Now if you feel the pinch of inflation, you have to fend for yourself, and especially because everyone is so busy looking after you, writes Pratap B Mehta.

To check corruption under the MGNREGA, the Centre is routing funds through banks and POs. But this has resulted in delayed payment and loss of faith in the system among people. Pradeep Baisakh argues the case for the earlier cash payment system.

In theory various rules govern the use of AIBP funds to execute projects. In practice, as the CAG reminds us, money is liberally diverted, and the States and the Centre both look away. Himanshu Upadhyaya reports.

The government's new plans to boost manufacturing in the country look quite similar to its earlier promises made when SEZs were set up. But there are a few lessons to be learned from that experiment, writes Kannan Kasturi.

With its recent move to let banks determine their own rates of interest paid to savings account holders, the Reserve Bank of India opens up new turf in the battle between banks for consumers.

A massive tide of migration to metropolitan areas is changing the form and function of cities before our eyes, but not always in the manner that planners expect.

Art blends with life through the tradition of woodcraft in Etikoppaka, but the need to sustain livelihoods is ever-present. Neeta Deshpande reports.

Far from subsidising the public, governments made the aam admi bear a substantial part of their expenditure on the production and sale of fuels, writes Kannan Kasturi.

It is tempting to take a rosy-eyed view of the future of successful entrepreneurship at the BOP. But what is the picture really? Richa Govil takes you through some recent stories and the lessons they may hold.

While government and other sector actors are on the alert to address the power crisis, some find a business opportunity in it. Meanwhile, attention to rural supply continues to be low, write Sreekumar N and Shantanu Dixit.

The principal contribution of the Malkha initiative is in its idea of rooting cotton handloom production in the rural economy, much against the trend in urban discourses. Neeta Deshpande reports.

In his latest book, The Wisdom of Ants: A Short History of Economics, with numerous revealing historical arguments and anecdotes, Shankar Jaganathan traces how economics emerged from being a relatively obscure field to a structured discipline that may be used to explain the basis for every aspect of human life and society, writes Satarupa Bhattacharya.

Given our Constitutional mandate to "endeavour to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities," Shankar Jaganathan explains why reintroduction of the Inheritance Tax may be a step worthy of serious consideration.

It is time for the Union Budget 2013. Shankar Jaganathan argues why, in an economy such as India, despite the general public vote against taxes, raising the tax-to-GDP ratio is more critical than restraint in fiscal spending.