BANKING: Bearer of Light

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For centuries India's Damodar River, meandering 340 miles through the northwestern hills to the sea, has been known as the "River of Sorrow." A plaything of the seasons, in summer's 120° heat the river dried to a trickle in a parched gulley. But in the monsoon, it became a raging torrent, scourging the Damodar Valley with malarial, crop-destroying floods. Last week the fickle Damodar could bear a new name: the River of Promise. Across its path stood three mighty dams, shunting water into irrigation ditches that will eventually reclaim 1,026,000 acres...

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