In a country where the need for collective and institutional engagement in social improvement is stark, Shankar Jaganathan explores the role and contours of individual responsibility - both towards self and society - as a necessary precondition for the former.

Corruption in India has attained humongous proportions despite continual but largely erratic movements since independence to tackle this menace. Shankar Jaganathan ponders on whether the recent betting scandal in cricket could catalyse an effective outcome in the fight against political corruption.

Political differences notwithstanding, given the shared socio-cultural fabric, it makes sense for India to collaborate with her South Asian neighbours and look to them for solutions to common problems, writes Sakuntala Narasimhan.

Baba Rampal is the most recent in a long line of Indian religious gurus who have hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Revathi Siva Kumar looks at a long list of Indian ‘godmen’ over the ages and tries to explain the influence they exert on a mesmerised flock.

Women in India have continually faced restrictions on how they dress, whether it is on wearing jeans to college or sports gear on the fields. Shoma Chatterji looks at this persistent trend of sartorial repression and urges women to reject such diktats.

With a long history of support for public education, Kerala has led the nation's movement towards universal literacy. But now, with the early challenges conquered, there are tough new lessons to be learned, to provide equitable, quality education. Deepa A reports.

With crop prices rising 30-fold, thousands of farmers in the hills of the south abandoned their traditional crops and switched to vanilla, with bank loans and rumours fueling their already unrealistic hopes even higher. But of course it was all too good to be true for very long. N P Chekkutty reports.

India's share in international trade has increased from 0.7 percent to 1 percent, which is a remarkable achievement, some say. In the meantime, lakhs of farmers in Kerala are being adversely affected by reduction of import tariffs on edible oils, spices and other cash crops. Thomas Varghese delves deeper.

In Kerala, considered a role model for other parts of the country, almost all Muslim children up to the tenth standard are in school, numbers that compare well to that of other communities. Yet, the story is very different when one looks at higher education, writes Deepa A.

For seven-year-old Sandhya and her siblings, totally dependant on their mother who ekes out a living by making beedis, the state government's relief package, announced nearly 18 months ago, is simply not enough. Many more suffer the same fate. P N Venugopal reports.

Some sections in Kerala are already blaming the land reform law for hurting big industrial projects; meanwhile around 10,000 dalit and adivasi families are locked in a struggle for the original entitlements that never came, reports M Suchitra.

Since Kerala and ASEAN countries both produce several similar items, competition from the latter is a cause of worry in the former. But the Centre has over-ridden the State's objections to the free trade agreement, writes Bhaskar Goswami.

Passed in 2005, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act could have been an effective tool to ensure redress for victims of domestic abuse. But an understaffed implementation body has made it yet another selective and often toothless piece of legislation, finds Puja Awasthi.

A recent Bombay HC ruling on the powers of the NCW, with regard to a case involving sexual harassment at the workplace, could have significant implications for gender justice in the long term. Revathi Siva Kumar looks at the facts of the case and the debate that it has stirred up. 

Bijayalaxmi Nanda tracks some of the prominent debates surrounding two critical legislations, dealing with gender-biased sex selection and abortion respectively, and points to the commonalities in recommendations made by the apparently contradictory camps.

Dr Ilina Sen, well-known social activist and feminist scholar, who currently heads the Department of Women’s Studies in Mahatma Gandhi University, Wardha, Maharashtra speaks in detail to M Suchitra about her husband's trial and her appeal to the Chhatisgarh High Court.

Among those whose livelihoods will be displaced by the Indira Sagar dam, women far outnumber men. But there is virtually no voice representing women's views, whether for or against the project, in all the talk of displacement here. Instead, nearly all their choices are handed down to them. R Uma Maheshwari reports.

Following allegations of wide-spread child labour in their business activities, foreign and Indian agri-business firms pledge to reform themselves. An update from The India Committe of the Netherlands.

A new report on finds agribusiness corporations from India and abroad are reneging on their promises to stop employing children in Andhra Pradesh. Gomati Jagadeesan reports.

A moratorium on loan recoveries is supposed to bring distressed farmers a bit of relief. But in the Parakal region of Warangal district, the Andhra Pradesh government's directive has taken farmers from the fire to the frying pan, says one farmer. Kondal Rao has more.

Drawing upon the growing incidence of child abandonment in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, Tejaswini Pagadala looks at the phenomenon through a broader lens and explores possible ways, including adoption, to mitigate the evil.

New Delhi's relations with Naga leaders may at last be taking a turn for the better, and offering hope for an end to the long-running insurgency, says Ramachandra Guha.

The narrow legal definition of rape, recently reiterated in the Sakshi case, has been criticized by Indian and international women's and children's organizations, who insist that broader interpretations are needed to protect victims, and also to serve justice. Shivkami RaviChandran says we haven't heard the last of this debate.

Outsourcing may have come to stay, but the conditions in which it is undertaken are surely amenable to change. We might wish to consider questions about the future to which IT/BPO employees are being invited to commit themselves, or how much of the work is cutting-edge, says Lata Mani.

From biogas to solar cookers and improved cookstoves, from agricultural tools to drudgery reducing technologies, most research and development in appropriate technologies has not been backed-up by appropriate market incentives. In contrast, hi-tech is totally market driven, says Sudhirendar Sharma.

India is unilaterally opening its doors to imports of wheat at a time when several contentious issues remain to be settled in the World Trade Organisation. This deliberate step up will result in serious consequences, and weaken the country's bargaining power, writes Ashok B Sharma.

Are quotas the way to redress inequities? A majority of the members of the National Knowledge Commission did not agree, but the UPA government is pressing ahead with its focus on quotas. Two of the NKC's members, Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Andre Beteille, have resigned from the commission.

The top down approach of the Disaster Managment Act had its advantages but completely ignored local knowledge and ways of living. The need is for a judicious mix of the traditional and technological, argues Max Martin.

Policies of privatisation and globalisation are changing not only economies but societies and cultures. At their core is the fight of ideas, and these will be expressed in words. What these words are, and what they mean, therefore, matters greatly, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

The World Bank's much touted 'knowledge' products are coming out of a flawed process. The bank hires highly paid consultants who are mostly directed through a system of incentives towards arriving at a pre-determined policy consensus. Information and experiences that run counter to the consensus are ignored. Shripad Dharmadhikary on the implications for India.

"Power to the people" will not be ushered in by the microchip or hydrogen battery, but by a redistribution of wealth. Darryl D'Monte fears the celebrated New York Times columnist may be misplacing his faith.

Can we tap into the power of crowds and popular fashion to address persistent poverty? And what would such an effort look like, wonders Gijs Spoor.

The issue of parental authority to resort to corporeal punishment on children is a matter still hotly debated in large sections of our society writes Shankar Jaganathan.

The Age of Consent is a clarion call to implausible action. But maybe that's the point - to urge that we ask why the obviously good outcomes seem so unlikely.

Unlimited Girls explores the ideas and experiences of feminism in contemporary urban India. Sameera Khan reviews Paromita Vohra's film.

The rape of 21 women and girls has exposed deep-rooted ethnic divisions as well as fissures in Manipur's civil society. As every tribe has rushed to arm itself, women find themselves embattled between warring groups, and their bodies are the terrain the war is fought on. Linda Chhakchhuak reports.

Acute poverty linked to armed conflict and displacement is a major reason for the growing number of commercial sex workers in Manipur. Drug abuse too is common, further impacting those turning to the world's oldest profession. Thingnam Anjulika Samom reports.

For decades now the beautiful state of Manipur has been wracked by a violent insurgency and torn by the excesses of a draconian army. Anjali Nayar visits the state, bringing back poignant tales and the feeling of what it is like to live with fear.

The Budhan Theatre Group has become the nexus for a movement to change attitudes towards denotified tribes both within Ahmedabad's Chharanagar community and outside it.

Traditionally, India's dairy cooperative societies have been run by men, but this is gradually changing. Today, 18% of cooperative members are women, and nearly 2500 all-women cooperatives are functioning in the country. Sunanda Nehru Ganju reports from Gujarat, where new livelihoods for women are being established this way.

"Like thousands of other ordinary Indians I had rushed to Gujarat to lend a helping hand. And in the two weeks spent there I got to see up close, many dimensions of our innate, if imperfect, humanity." Venu Madhav Govindu remembers a relief camp he called home five years ago.

An ongoing study of school textbooks in four states has found stereotypes and biases in Gujarat's textbooks. The Social Studies textbook for standard five has nine stories on mythology masquerading as history. Deepa A reports.

The doors of homes in Rehmat Nagar, Godhra, are opened by children, and sometimes by women. Men are rarely to be seen around. The world outside the settlement refers to them as "POTA families", a description that encapsulates their precarious present and future. Deepa A has more.

It is not only those whose villages have been submerged who have suffered, but hundreds of families have lost land to the building of Sardar Sarovar itself. Neeta Deshpande reports.

Labour contractors and large landowners continue to employ children, often exposing them to vulnerable situations. Extreme poverty in Rajasthan's tribal districts fuels the practice. Pradeep Baisakh reports.

Less than 50 per cent of girl child births are being registered by parents because of gender bias, says former Census Commissioner Jayant Banthia, speaking at a Panchayats and Child Rights convention recently at New Delhi. Nitin Jugran Bahuguna reports.

Tribal societies and groups belonging to the Scheduled Tribes in India are traditionally known to have been relatively gender-unbiased, but recent reports and statistics point to a deteriorating child sex ratio in these communities, too. Shambhu Ghatak analyses the findings.

An INASAF investigation finds the state grossly indifferent to the health, medical needs, and humane treatment of its prisoners, some of whom haven't even received trials.

During the last four to five years, the soil in several parts of Punjab has been regenerated and rejuvenated. Natural farmers are convinced it is working. The movement is led by experienced farmers who believe in Guru Nanak's tenet of Sarbat da bhala (well being of all). Umendra Dutt writes about the transformative work hundreds of farmers are doing.

By tearing up the global rulebook, the US is in fact undermining its own imperial rule, but in this there lies an opportunity for global democracy, says George Monbiot.