May 2005

Results of tests on a biodiesel produced from an oilseed shrub gives new impetus to the drive to find alternative fuels.
In April 2004 a Mercedes car traversed 6000 km of diverse stretches on Indian roads—going up the Western Ghats, across the grave, desert tracks of Rajasthan and down the streaming stretches of south India. It was no ordinary journey but an experiment which might one day revolutionise land travel.

But have the right lessons been learned?

Ten years after the World Bank last helped build a big dam, and five years after the World Commission on Dams cast doubt on the benefits of such projects, the bank is back in the dam business. Last week, it agreed to lend the government of Laos $270m to build a dam on the Nam Theun river, a tributary of the Mekong. The Asian Development Bank followed suit on April 4 with a loan of $ 120m. The developers expect the remaining financing for the $ 1.25 billion project to fall into place quickly. Construction should begin in June.

Many readers have often asked, So why does CrossOver not give us enough live examples of people and homes that have successfully practised green technologies.
Here are two working models of water conservation practices employed at individual homes. Read on...

Dwarkanath came to Bangalore 50 years ago, and stayed in different parts of Bangalore.
Twelve years ago he bought the site [See Fact File]. The land had a 40-feet deep open well.

ADB‘s objectives are above those of the mainstream banker. They want to see that the money they lend, brings transformation to communities. But has the model worked?
The grey corridors wear a sober look. Metres of them connecting into a maze of neatly laid out H–grids, with many trained minds busily pecking away at their computers.
There are Energy Specialists; there are Financial Analysts for Energy Specialists. There are Transport Consultants; Water Economists; and Financial Economists. There are Anti-money Laundering Consultants, and Poverty Reduction Specialists, too.

We wrote last month on the quiet, but definitive, reassertion of the India that is Bharat; of how the Indian villager is finding himself actually wanted—by corporate giants like HLL and ITC [Find the time, dear reader, to read BusinesWorld’s provoking feature [May 02, Cover Story] on the battles of the balance sheet being played out in the dusty arena of our villages.
The assertion of these simple folk is part of a change that observers have recognized to be part of the new century’s pattern.