The recent government crackdown on Greenpeace in particular, and the activism sector in general, reeks of arbitrariness and illegitimacy, says Ashish Kothari in a scathing critique. The question is will the people give in to the state’s tactics?

The imminent Panchayat elections in Karnataka will see 50 percent reservation for women at all tiers, but how can one ensure real authority for them? Proposed amendments to the Panchayat Raj Act may hold some answers.

A new scheme launched by PM Narendra Modi envisages development through a model in which every MP chooses a village to develop, with people’s participation. Vikas Jha looks at the numbers and realities to explore the real needs of rural development at the panchayat level.

India begins 2009 from a position of strength. But how it approaches security issues in the internaland external security planes will determine how it ends the year, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

Is military combat the only way to deal with the Islamic state and its likes? Firdaus Ahmed ponders about the role India can play in making the ongoing temporary ceasefire in the five-year old Syrian civil war a more permanent one.

Towering pylons and high tension wires seem to discourage any idea of resistance to environmental destruction in Tehri Garhwal, but the villagers persist. Bharat Dogra reports.

For some time now, the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court has been reviewing the decisons of the Forest Advisory Committee, which grants permission for converting forest land for non-forest use. But this oversight may be coming to an end. Kanchi Kohli reports.

The challenge before the media is to move beyond clubbing what happens to women with routine crime briefs, on the one hand, and sensational stories, on the other, to cover "the greatest human rights scandal of our times". Ammu Joseph looks at media coverage of violence against women.

Violence in India has followed this macro-to-micro trajectory of Indian modernity. As different forces have shaped modernity, we have shifted from large-scale acts of violence cutting across national boundaries, to state-level violence, to village level violence, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

Ritual culture is fundamentally incompatible with modern city life, but an alternative based on an implicit social contract has yet to emerge in India, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

A land in which every kind of oppression has a long history is a country in which wounds are deep and forgiveness difficult. Moral indignation comes too easily to us, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The decline of politics and of intellectual discourse is related to the struggle between politics and economics as the arbiter of the moral commons and the role of the developmental state in this fight, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The recent simplifications to the Central environmental clearance process may endup pushing peoples’ participation and transparency to fringes, says Sunita Dubey.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests is looking away from even the minimal standards of environmental stewardship needed in modern times, asserted citizens and experts in open letter to the government recently. Ashish Kothari and Kanchi Kohli were two of the signatories.

Thus far, MoEF has only been negligent in safeguarding the environment, but now it proposes to do away with even the need to do so. The new draft notification from the ministry has obligingly confined itself to facilitating new investments, and ignored all other stakeholder voices, writes Kanchi Kohli.

Taking a 360-degree view of the Union Budget 2013, Shankar Jaganathan points out that despite 'inclusive and sustainable development' being a stated goal, the emphasis has primarily been on growth and finances.

6,433 model villages by 2024? A summary of the key features of the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, recently launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the objective of facilitating development in villages

Wage delays, inadequate manpower and the indifference of authorities to real issues on the ground are stripping the employment guarantee programme of its strong potential to improve rural lives, and budget cuts have only made it worse. Ankita Aggarwal reports from Jharkhand.

Celluloid Man pays a moving tribute to P.K. Nair, a man whose passion and commitment has kept alive the history of Indian cinema for film lovers, even as it exposes the tragic indifference of the establishment towards Nair, and archiving in general. Shoma A. Chatterji reviews the film.

Even a badly made film becomes a learning experience for the viewers because it sheds light on issues not known widely otherwise, says Shoma Chatterji as she reviews the movie Saankal.

Well-known experts presented `Water: More Nutrition Per Drop' at the April 20 meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in New York. Sudhirendar Sharma reviews the report and its considerations of the Indian situation.

In what appears to be a desperate move to prop up agriculture growth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for reversing the declining trend in investment in agriculture. But his approach may also end up compounding the already existing crisis, writes Devinder Sharma.

The recent decisions of several state governments to ban sex education in all schools concern everyone, particularly women. In this age of the knowledge economy, we cannot believe that people's access to information on any subject, including matters relating to sex, can be controlled, says Kalpana Sharma.

The ritualistic form of worship, once rejected as superstitious and irrational, witnesses a steady resurgence in Kerala. Is it because of a strong wave of casteism, the interpolation of Hindu Brahminical philosophy or merely a yearning to go back to the roots? Nileena M S explores.

An ancient matrilineal tribe of northeast India has a thriving culture and an increasing population, while a similarly ancient Dravidian matrilineal tribe is in danger of vanishing. Linda Chhakchhuak reports on what the Dravidian tribe can learn from the northeastern tribe to revive its culture and population.

Rasika Dhavse summaries a study on bus transport systems from India's Auto Fuel Policy report of 2002.

V Jagan Mohan says that Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) can be the vehicles for rural credit in a reforms era.

Despite notoriously variable and low earnings, close to 30% of the male population in Bilaspur's Chingrajpara slum are cycle-rickshaw pullers. Third in the SLUM DIARIES series, Ashima Sood cuts across boundaries to chronicle the forces impinging on the pullers' livelihoods.

While some of the handloom sector's troubles come from the relentless march of mechanisation, modernisation and sophistication, there's more to the troubled weavers' plight, says Narasimha Reddy.

The introduction of centralised spinning mills in British times reduced the economic benefit that farmers and weavers could obtain. But now it is being asked, can decentralised cloth-making revive old livelihoods? Surekha Sule reports.

Against the wishes of the local people, and even the State government, a salt factory is proposed to be established on land that has been used freely by 20,000 villagers for decades. In the face of shifting politics, the residents are determined that they will protect their livelihoods. Aparna Pallavi reports.

India has made cotton fabrics for 20 centuries, and its scale in India was unimaginable. But modern market structures have pushed millions to the edge, and a few intense efforts, such as those of Dastakar Andhra, are not enough to reverse this. Darryl D'Monte reports.

The many arguments offered in support of Public Private Partnerships don't stand up to close examination. The private sector is not more efficient than its public counterpart, nor is cheap money accessible to it as readily, write Shripad Dharmadhikary and Gaurav Dwivedi.

It is nobody’s case that there is no crisis. But when remedies are prescribed, the diagnosis and the investigation have to be beyond dispute. P N Venugopal critiques a report from the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

Many micro-credit loans do no more than allow a family to juggle its finances for a month-to-month existance. As investors embrace this 'market', MFIs are increasingly under scrutiny. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

A massive tide of migration to metropolitan areas is changing the form and function of cities before our eyes, but not always in the manner that planners expect.

The recent clash between two eminent economists of our times, Amartya Sen and Jagadish Bhagwati, appears to be centred around the Food Security Bill. Shankar Jaganathan provides a historical context to show why their contradictions extend far beyond any isolated issue to a clash between two schools of the discipline itself.

The findings of a recent study by scholars at the University of Oxford point to the adverse outcomes and poor economic returns associated with large dam projects. Amruta Pradhan summarises the findings and shows how they have been consistently borne out by empirical observations in Maharashtra.

For over two decades now, agriculture has suffered overall neglect as successive governments, led by World-Bank prescribed growth models, have issued disproportionate doles to industry. While the present allocations do not spell much hope, Devinder Sharma suggests what the Modi government may still do to reverse the trend.

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.

'Four goals, five drivers and 11 thrust areas' formed the framework for Suresh Prabhu’s railway budget, otherwise shorn of big ticket announcements or details about the nitty gritty of execution. Here’s a look at some key announcements in the Budget speech.

What could the taxes, allocations and schemes in Arun Jaitley’s budget ultimately mean for the country and its people? Shankar Jaganathan takes a bird’s eye view of the government’s most anticipated annual document for the year.

PM Modi's vision of smart cities will remain unrealised till we have environmentally-smart urban centres, equipped to mitigate the severe chronic air pollution levels. But what will it entail? Sarath Guttikunda analyses.

At a recent conference hosted by the environment ministry, attendees adopted several resolutions with a purported view to developing India’s environmental future. Kanchi Kohli analyses some of these and their real, likely portent.

Perceiving itself as outside the policy making tent, the military tends to dig in on its views. The solution is to remove the distinction between the uniform and the safari suits, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

As India takes on the role of a mature power centre in the Indian Ocean region, Firdaus Ahmed wonders if it will stick to its traditional defensive culture or if the move to a rightist polity will bring about a different doctrine altogether.

Our government and the National Security Adviser are promoting 'defensive offence' as India's Pakistan strategy. Firdaus Ahmed explains why that's not the case and that our strategy is more 'offensive-compellence' than 'defensive offence'.

With private car ownership in the large cities outpacing population growth, the central government is waking up to the need to introduce traffic restraint schemes in the metros, writes Darryl D'Monte.

The Supreme Court's order on the removal of tinted films from vehicles is being implemented across the country, amidst complaints from the public. Navya P K reports.

The locking up of the notorious poacher and wildlife trader Sansar Chand was proof that India's police officers could make a difference. But stopping wildlife trade needs more, writes Malini Shankar.