UNDP India Blogs

      • Creating Agricultural Entrepreneurs in Jharkhand- Lessons from a UNDP Biodiversity Project | Ruchi Pant

        28 Aug 2012

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        [Photo: UNDP India]

        I was very encouraged that Times of India covered one of our small projects in Jharkhand. This project helped 30 young people in the district become agricultural entrepreneurs – cultivating and selling lac to nearby markets. For years lac cultivation had been a valuable source of income for poor, tribal families in extremist-affected Khunti district in Jharkhand. However, a shortage of brood lac or mother insects required to cultivate lac has made it more difficult to grow lac in the last few years. But a recent partnership between the Institute of Forest Productivity and UNDP has given a new lease to lac cultivation in the area. It’s a success which has included many more villagers along with it. Hundreds of villagers have been employed in a range of activities relating to growing lac. In 2011, record production in Murhu bloc resulted in an annual income of INR 70,000 for each family. According to Dera Munda, a middle-aged farmer who grew lac on 25 trees, “I have grown around 1.25 quintals of lac which has fetched me INR 80,000.” In an area plagued with drought and limited irrigation facilities which has made it difficult for families to cultivate yearly paddy crop, “income Read More

      • Biodiversity – A Time to Act | Srinivasan Iyer

        13 Aug 2012

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        Photo: UNDP India

        Rice, pigeon pea, mango, turmeric, ginger, pepper, banana, bitter gourd, okra, coconut, cardamom, jackfruit, sugarcane, bamboo, taro, indigo, sunhemp, amaranths, goose berries. India is considered to be the place of the origin of several varieties of these plant species. India is one of the 17 mega biodiversity countries of the world. With only 2.5% of the land area, India accounts for 7.8% of the recorded species of the world. The country has contributed to and is party to key multilateral agreements on environmental issues, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Pursuant to the CBD, following a widespread consultative process, and programs related to biodiversity, Biological Diversity Act, 2002 has been enacted. India is one of the few countries to have enacted such a legislation. This Act primarily aims at giving effect for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and facilitate access to biological resources and associated traditional knowledge so as to ensure fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of their commercialization. UNDP contributed to the formulation of the BD Act. Last week, along with the Madhya Pradesh State Minister of Forests, I was at a national consultation which was exploring the challenges of implementing this landmark legislation. In Read More

      • India- Women in Leadership Programme | Sumeeta Banerji

        08 Aug 2012

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        Inaugural Speech by Rajasthan governor Margaret Alva. [PHOTO: IIM-Bangalore]

        I was recently invited to speak at the inaugural session of the India- Women in Leadership Programme being held at IIM-Bangalore. This powerful course, jointly designed by IIM-B and CSR, has an equally apt abbreviation - the i-WiL programme. That captures the motivation of the course designers, the intent of its partners and the potential transformation that the students of the course have signed up for. As a woman myself, I have often pondered over the obvious paradox in India – between the empowered women who have occupied numerous seats of power in the country and how this has failed to impact the status of women more generally in the country. Over the centuries, indian women have made a mark for themselves – as administrators, politicians, artists, writers and poets, philosophers, activists. However, disempowerment and its many facets and consequences continue to affect a majority of women even today. The 10-week, first ever certificate course in political leadership, India-Women in Leadership Programme of the Centre for Public Policy, IIM-Bangalore and Centre for Social Research, New Delhi, was inaugurated by Rajasthan governor Margaret Alva. Women constitute 19 percent of the members of parliaments around the world; an increase from 11.3 percent in Read More