Even in regions touted as India’s food bowl, Rs 3000 a month is all that a farmer earns for his family! Devinder Sharma crunches data from CACP to highlight the grave crisis in the agrarian economy.

Despite the high price of imported wheat, the government prefers this option to paying Indian farmers a higher support price for their crops. Bhaskar Goswami says that this amounts to a covert policy of dismantling the procurement and price support mechanisms.

The differential treatment of people and communities is not just a matter of corruption or unfairness, but rather a deep seated psychological response in a historically diverse polity. Our challenge is to recognise this, and then move beyond it, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

A theatre festival was held in Kolkata between November 1 to November 4 dedicated to the memory of Nati Binodini (1863-1941), a versatile actress whose dramatic and tragic life had more twists and turns than a film script. Shoma Chatterji attended, and has more.

As a young country with many technical problems, we need an army of Holmeses who can solve them. But the Macaulay-inspired education has always suited the Watsons, who cannot. Until this changes, there will be little hope of swaraj in ideas, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

Dr C S Lakshmi, the eminent Tamil feminist writer, who writes under the pen name Ambai, has been a researcher in women’s studies for the last several decades, and is also the Founder Trustee of Sound & Picture Archives for Research on Women (SPARROW), that has undertaken several oral history projects. She speaks to Pratibha Umashankar about issues concerning women.

Most Indian languages do not have a specific word for the female traveller. The traveller is by definition male, a fact that provokes Namrata R Ganneri to delve deeper into the gendered nuances of travel and its implications for women.

Jobless growth and regional imbalances have collectively spurred migration, and this is the larger malaise behind recent mass murders on ethnic lines, says Swati Narayan.

Can the small-time retail shop's employee or the truck operator's handyman claim more job protection than his wage labour counterpart? In this sixth article in our SLUM DIARIES series, Ashima Sood notes that the labour law framework is no more a friend of the small establishment's employee than it is of the casual labourer.

The recall of the decommissioned French warship Clemenceau back to France in the wave of protests worldwide opens a great opportunity for India to clean its ship breaking yard in Alang, and improve conditions for its workers. A thorough assessment of facilities at Alang is much needed, notes Ramesh Menon.

The agreement between the Kandla Port Trust in Gujarat and the Adani Port & Special Economic Zone Ltd appears set to be passed without the kind of environment impact assessment mandated for an eco-sensitive zone such as this. Kanchi Kohli reports.

The recent verdict of the Gujarat High Court regarding the operation of multipurpose industries on land leased out by the MPSEZ could have critical implications for environmental clearance of SEZs in general. Kanchi Kohli reports.

The recent ‘secret’ report from the IB accusing select NGOs of scuttling Indian development is not only an unjust indictment of these organisations, but also an insult to the intelligence and voice of the common man. Sakuntala Narasimhan elaborates.

Much is made out of the proportion of youth in India’s population and what it could mean for its economy and progress. However, statistics and trends in education and employment within this group do not paint a promising picture, points out Kannan Kasturi.

Demonetisation is primarily about the Rule of Law in our country and the capacity of the state to ensure, and abide by, the Rule of Law, comments Harish Narasappa.

Recently Darryl D’Monte interviewed the famous physicist Fritjof Capra at the annual meet of Greenaccord international environmental journalists in Italy. Here he reports on Capra’s separate remarks about the environment, along with quotes from his books and blogs.

The recently released joint doctrine shows a movement in India's strategic, nuclear, conventional and sub-conventional doctrines. Firdaus Ahmed claims that this necessarily will not make India any safer.

In discussions of the travails of the airline industry that have been taking place recently, its detrimental effect on global warming has not come up, writes Sujatha Byravan.

The government continues with its blind focus on highways and expressways when infrastructure for water supply, waste management and mass transit system is in desperate need of attention. Kannan Kasturi says there is more to public infrastructure than just highways and expressways.

Simultaneous protection of rights of both tigers and human tribes is a utopian dream; where co-existence is an inescapable reality, political will to reduce human imprint to a minimum and sensitisation of forest dwellers are critical to conservation, writes Malini Shankar

Didn't parliament condemn this war? Then why do we need a new consensus on sending troops to Iraq, asks P Sainath, remembering similar sacrifices of Indian lives for the British empire.

Post-mortem registers at some centres in Vidarbha show poisoning cases outnumber all other cases put together. Meanwhile, farm suicides are up sharply after November and spreading to the paddy belt. In some districts, the suicide mortality rate for male farmers in 2004 was 10 times the national average for all males, writes P Sainath.

In the English media, the 50th Ambedkar anniversary rated at best as a traffic problem. At worst, as a potential nightmare. There was not even a pretence of interest in the person. But this is a time to remember that the larger society ignores or distorts the Dalits' struggle for their rights at its own risk, writes P Sainath.

Remember how keen so many of our national security experts were on sending our own troops into Iraq alongside those of the U.S.? Remember it was to have been such a good thing for India, asks P Sainath.

The original report on 'paid news' of the Press Council of India sub-committee is relegated to the archive. Then too, it does not even appear on the PCI's website, writes P Sainath.

The government’s counter-affidavit in a recent suit could strip the ECI of its power to disqualify candidates for fraudulent accounts or put an end to the pandemic of paid news. P Sainath reports on civil society attempts to stop the subversion of the EC’s powers.

The tsunami is not forgotten, but in Keechankuppam the fishermen have weighed the risk of another tsunami against the prospects for finding safer housing further inland. And so their huts are back again on the once-ravaged beach, as though the tsunami never happened, writes Dilip D'Souza.

The government proposes to permit truth as a valid defense in contempt-of-court cases, but prefers to leave it to judges to decide when it should be allowed.

Campuses across the country are reimposing law and order in an indication of new resolve to root out ragging and violence, especially against women students. Puja Rawat reports.

A critique of the process and research used by the Justice Malimath Committee to recommend reforms to the Criminal Justice System. This is the first of a two part series.
Click here to read Part II

In the second and concluding part of the series on the Malimath Committee's report, Bikram Jeet Batra looks at the detailed recommendations in terms of implications for Human Rights.
Earlier: Part I

Hopes for India's languishing Freedom of Information Act becoming effective were given a boost on July 20. Subramaniam Vincent reports on the Supreme Court's deadline and implications.

In the last two decades, a variety of petitions filed before the Supreme Court over illegalities concerning large dam and irrigation projects have all had a common result. Project proponents have gotten the judicial go-ahead. What is the point of overcrowding laws with more 'enabling' provisions then, asks Videh Upadhyay.

With the Central government lobbing the ball into the states' court, the right to education bill has practically lost its very essence. Without a central legislation to support it, a constitutional guarantee will have little meaning, say most experts. Deepa A concludes the 'Lens on Education' series.

It is impermissible under the law to 'scandalise the courts'. But is this vague restraint contrary to the guarantees of liberty given to citizens in the Constitution? Kannan Kasturi examines the notion of 'contempt of court'.

With the Modi government strongly pushing for the removal of UPA-appointed governors, the issue is once again in the limelight. Anviti Chaturvedi throws light on what the Constitution and Supreme Court laws say on the matter.

The abhorrent remarks by actor-turned-Trinamool MP Tapas Pal, stating that he would get the women among his opponents raped, have left many outraged but drawn mild reactions from his party and no legal action at all. Shoma Chatterji exposes the milieu where leaders like Pal enjoy complete impunity.

On 18 March, at a discussion organised by Daksh India, Nick Robinson from the Harvard Law School explored in detail the phenomenon of judicial delays, sharing insights from his work in both India and the US. Pavan Kulkarni summarises the points raised.

You don’t have to fear police harassment if you report or help an injured accident victim. You don’t even have to reveal personal details unless you wish to testify. Here’s a summary of the “Good Samaritan” guidelines that the apex court has now made compulsory for states to follow.

"In the Varadaraja Swamy Temple in Kanchipuram, I saw with my own eyes, just a year ago, how the late 17th-century murals were literally disintegrating. As you watch, they are going. It has happened in temple after temple". David Shulman talks to Lalitha Sridhar .

"The producer wanted to make a good film, and we didn't think about anything else", says Unni Vijayan, director of the national award-winning film Lessons in Forgetting. Padmalatha Ravi catches up with the director to know more about this film and its making.

If you want to beat up Hazare for his stubbornness, go right ahead. But before that, start with the Union Cabinet, notes Subramaniam Vincent.

Nityanand Jayaraman reports on the recent engagement of a delegation from Bhopal seeking justice in the United States.

Neeti Deewan reports on how determined women ended a four-year long drought in two Madhya Pradesh villages by deepening a pond on their own in a few months.

The translation of support for the Aam Aadmi Party into votes in the Delhi Assembly Elections 2013 augurs well for the Indian democracy, long struggling to break free from a corruption-ridden, archaic political establishment, writes R. Balasubramaniam

Though the quality and calibre of our representatives in Parliament, and consequently its functioning, has often come under a cloud, options for induction of apolitical talent in Parliament are limited. P V Rajeev envisions a scheme that could make it possible.

The multi-faceted Gulzar, revered equally in intellectual literary and mainstream film circles, was recently bestowed the 45th Dadasaheb Phalke Award. In this interview with Shoma Chatterji, the venerable Gulzar Sahib speaks of his art, his career in Indian cinema, and the changes he has seen over the years.

UR Ananthamurthy's brutally honest stance on Brahmanism, or in fact on any of the subjects that concerned him, has been fiercely debated in his life and death. In a tribute to the recently deceased stalwart of public thinking, Prakash Belawadi seeks to find clues to his inquiring spirit.

Hailed for his stewardship of Titan Industries where he built a premium brand from scratch and won for it international renown, Xerxes Desai naturally has one of the keenest perspectives on Indian industry. But his equally deep insights into Indian society and development become apparent through this interaction with Christopher Lopaze.

With the instant triple talaq been declared unconstitutional, Shoma Chatterji finds it interesting to look back at how the Muslim identity has been represented in Hindi cinema and if it will change now.