Climate change

As Pakistan’s worst affected recover from the recent floods, the province of Sindh and Balochistan will need serious reparatory action from both local and international actors. International actors continue to profit from the extractions and lending enterprises, while locally, the most climate vulnerable are systematically excluded from dialogue and process for development projects that impact their rights to housing and livelihood and protect them from climate change.

The field trials of genetically modified mustard allowed by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee and subsequently stayed by the Supreme Court pending scientific examination of information brings forth the debate about the role of modern technologies in addressing the pressing challenges of

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The water sector in India and vested interests in it have always been averse to change. We have now reached a point where diffi cult decisions must be taken if we are to avoid an increasing number of water-related confl icts. The states must not only adopt legislation based on the central government’s groundwater model law but also make sure to adapt it to their local circumstances. The union government also has a framework legislation that attempts to highlight the importance of water, which all states would do well to replicate.

In this response to Chris J Perry and M Dinesh Kumar’s critique of the authors’ co-authored paper, “Water and Agricultural Transformation in India: A Symbiotic Relationship —I” by Mihir Shah, P S Vijayshankar and Francesca Harris (EPW, 17 July 2021), the authors seek to respond to a distortion of their views as well as what they claim is a ridiculing of powerful solutions to India’s water and agrarian crises.