Word: regional
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...Perhaps no single region of India's vast hinterland has received more concentrated government attention than Vidarbha. One of India's more distressed farming regions, Vidarbha became infamous for its high rate of farmer suicides. The problem became so severe in 2006, when more than 1,250 took their lives, that Singh toured Vidarbha and announced a special $780 million development program for the area, which the locals refer to simply as "the package...
...roads through Vidarbha's cotton fields, he stops his jeep every few miles to show off the government's handiwork. First, he marches up a muddy hillside to a small dam the government built to help farmers preserve monsoon rainwater - one of more than 9,000 constructed in the region over the past three years. Next he visits the farm of Bhiamrao Mahore, who received free orange-tree saplings from a state-funded nursery. Mahore hopes his oranges will bring more money than the cotton he had planted before. Next stop is a state-sponsored training session where scores...
...Kishor Tiwari believes the farmers require much more than that. The Nagpur-based activist, whose organization, the Vidarbha People's Protest Forum, has championed the region's cotton growers, says that the package has alleviated some of the farmers' distress. But Tiwari says that more government intervention is needed to solve the real underlying problem: a global agricultural market rigged against the small tiller. While the costs of crucial inputs, like fertilizer, have been rising, global prices for cotton are being depressed to an artificially low level by U.S.-government subsidies for its cotton farmers - a one-two punch...
...Geisinger uses a little of all three strategies. Founded in 1915 as a 70-bed hospital in a small, underserved rural community, the operation now spans a 43-county region, with a total of 67 sites - stretching from one-doctor offices and in-store clinics to a sprawling main campus in Danville, Pa. Like Kaiser, the 13,000-employee Geisinger is both a care provider and an insurer. About 30% of its 783,000 patients have the in-house coverage; the remaining 70% are covered by other private insurers or Medicare...
...strength of Georgia's democracy is not a small thing; it is the only thing. If a pro-Western liberal democracy can thrive on Russia's southern border, other struggling former Soviet republics might follow suit. And since the Caucasus region is a key route for getting Central Asian oil and gas to Western markets without going through Russia, Georgia could help lessen the West's dependence on Russian energy. But first Georgia needs to become stable, peaceful and prosperous. History will judge Saakashvili, and all his enthusiasms, on whether or not he can make that happen...