An ad a day will keep voters away
How bizarre can a government policy decision get? India's first national policy on resettlement and rehabilitation for people affected by …
True growth is about overcoming hard challenges
IN THE developed world, conducting business today is also about being environmentally accountable. Governments have imposed stringent regulatory …
100% ELECTRIFIED, But still in the dark
On April 28, when Leisang, a tiny hamlet in Manipur, was connected to the grid, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that it would be "remembered …
‘I have asked the government to re-examine amendments to land laws’
Jharkhand's first tribal governor, Droupadi Murmu, has been featured in the news more than Raghubar Das, the state's first non-tribal chief …
"We need to think about all of us as being citizens of the same world"
Joseph E Stiglitz helped create a new branch of economics - the Economics of Information. This earned him the Nobel Prize for economics in 2001. …
The monsoon always catches the government unawares
First there was the mounting suspense. All of India awaited with bated breath the arrival of the south west monsoon. Would it arrive? Miraculously,…
Empowered panchayats make for true liberalisation
A myth actively perpetuated by traditional politicians and a supportive bureauracy is that panchayat bodies are India's lowest ranked …
The power game
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have become increasingly influential in the past 50 years. Awareness of human rights and social and …
Ways to budge Karzai
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The house that Digvijay built
Governments and the masses have very rarely worked together successfully in modern India. In Madhya Pradesh, chief minister Digvijay Singh has …
Who's to blame?
Management of protected forests is a hotly debated issue. In the absence of a sound policy based on a scientific approach, there are as many …
Saga of two villages
Sukhomajri was a dirt-poor village in Haryana. It started pulling itself out of its hole in the late 1970s, making a dizzying ascent to …
Gone with the wind
When the wind energy sector was opened to private investors in 1993, there was a virtual boom. However, after the initial rush of activity, …
More arsenic
Exactly how widespread is the presence of poisonous arsenic in the groundwater that Indians drink? In Delhi, a doctor's phone call propels Down …
Miles to go
Is the government serious about introducing compressed natural gas (CNG) as a standard fuel for Delhi's vehicles? Have adequate steps been taken …
PUBLIC OUTCRY
For the past several months, Delhi has been witness to a half-hearted government being prodded by a determined Supreme Court to clean the Yamuna. …
Another world is possible
Optimism is a great friend but a bad guide. The Asian Social Forum meeting in Hyderabad, India, deliberately avoided this truism while …
‘Europe has double standards when it comes to the Roma’
For centuries, the Roma (colloquially known as ‘Gypsies’) have been discriminated against in Europe, to which they migrated to from …
Breach of trust
This is not a story about floods in Bihar. This is a story about how an entire society has been corrupted by money meant to build embankments for …
Agony of the waiting
There is a strange calmness in the oncology department of government hospitals though it is more crowded that most other sections. Everybody waits.…
Cries of anguish
Most Indians are defenceless against the fine toxic particles in the air -- largely products of vehicular emissions -- and scientists are finding …
Children of a lesser State
A rare killer disease, Japanese encephalitis, has been annually and invariably breaking out in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. This year, so far, 3,…
TRIPPED
On December 26, 2004, the Union government of India issued the Patents (Amendments) Ordinance, which will change the way the country does …
Cola major gets a taste of panchayat power
A multi-billion-dollar transnational corporation has had to blink first in an eyeball-to-eyeball dispute with an obscure panchayat of Kerala. On …
Climate is changing, and the Sundarban residents can feel it
The Sundarban delta region in the Bay of Bengal, with 10,000 square kilometres of estuarine mangrove forest and 102 islands, is the world's …
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