In ensuring that Delhi's roads and lanes are stiff with quality, citizens are facing stiffer resistance from the muncipality's officials, says Arvind Kejriwal

Drawing inspiration from an acclaimed film, a Delhi trust brings hope and opportunities to street children. Varupi Jain reports.

Varupi Jain investigates the lives of these hard labourers at New Delhi Railway Station, and finds a constant struggle for livelihood.

Millions of Indian kids are out of school because the places that were reserved for them by law were instead given to others like you and me. That may be about to change, says Ashwin Mahesh.

Part of the Aravalli range, the Delhi ridge is an icon of greenery and part of the capital's heritage. But over the years, much of the ridge has disappeared, with the most recent threat coming from swanky hotels and malls. A multi-stakeholder board is supposed to protect the ridge, but is fraught with conflicts of interest. Deepa A reports.

These kids can hold their own on sensationalism in the media. Why? Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's vision of journalism, they help put together a newspaper called The Yamuna. Shobha S V has more.

Debates on a paradigm shift in Indian politics have primarily seen arguments around the feasibility of change, even as they took its desirability as given. Shankar Jaganathan celebrates the developments which promise a triumph for idealism and show its potential of being translated into reality.

The AAP manifesto may have talked at length about “a flexible and fair labour policy” and regularisation of contract workers, but for a vast section of daily wage-earners, such promises hold no meaning. Devanik Saha talks to one to find out why.

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.

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.

Every year the Knight fellowships program at Stanford University awards eight international fellowships for journalism innovation. This year, one of the eight is your own newsmagazine’s co-founder.

Crime and atrocities against Dalits is on rise, while support and justice in these cases are long delayed and the coverage of these crimes is inept, biased or voyeuristic. Pushpa Achanta finds out why media, the fourth pillar of our democracy, is falling short in its duty.

The Board of Directors of this company haven't been to college or school. They don’t have fancy cars, and haven't travelled more than 50 kilometers from their homes. What makes them even more unique is that they're all women who when displaced from their homes in the Ranthambhore forest overcame many challenges, learned new crafts, rebuilt their lives and made their own destiny, writes Supriya Unni Nair.

2009 – mid 2014: UPA.
Mid 2014 – present: NDA.
This map will show you that irrespective of who’s at the helm, national policies and issues considered sacrosanct are not open to debate in our country.

Shoma Chatterji writes about the challenges faced and efforts being made in the Northeastern states of India to encourage and support film making.

While stonewalling their demand to broadcast news, the I&B Ministry has said CR stations can air AIR bulletins instead. Geeta Seshu reports.

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.

In the poorest part of Jharkhand, community radio has become an important instrument for the development of neglected communities. If access to their own media were freer, the villagers believe, things could be even better. Pratibha Jyoti reports on the progress made even without government support for community stations.

Dilip D'Souza on how unglamorous measures have begun to pay off for the Saora people in Orissa.

Months before the recent police firings during tribal protests in Kalinganagar, Orissa, the state government and international development agencies had finalised a draft for a comprehensive resettlement and rehabilitation for project-affected people. Manipadma Jena reports that the policy is likely to come into force in March 2006.

In one of development's pampered districts in Orissa, chamar children are still polishing shoes, some even as they are supposedly schooling. Special economic packages are helping only a little here, and academic performance and serious rehabilitation remain abysmal, finds Ranjan K Panda.

Rs.500 crores of Orissa's funds for rural employment guarantees for 2006-7 appear to have been siphoned off by the state bureaucracy. This money would have brought 10 lakh poorest families two subsistence meals for four-six months, at a time of hunger and starvation deaths. Parshuram Rai has more.

Launched after a successful international pledge campaign in 2007, the Bakul children's library in Bhubaneshwar is slowly turning into a node for various kinds of volunteering. Professors, young artists, students, organisers and others have started chipping in. Sailen Routray has more.

The report of the Roy Paul Committee set up by the MoEF to examine and act on the earlier judgment of the Green Tribunal recommends several studies and assessments, but few of those seem to have been considered in the most recent appraisal. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Their shelters and livelihoods ravaged by the deadly recent cyclone, many women along Odisha's coastline are are so bereft of any hope for the future that they feel it would have been better to be among the dead. Sarada Lahangir meets some of them.

The broad-based Community Based Functional Literacy Campaign launched by the State Resource Centre of Rayagada, Orissa aims to educate women and drop-out girls in three of the most backward districts of the state. Abhijit Mohanty summarises the key take-aways so far.

The struggle to feed themselves and their families round the year drives millions of farmers in India to desperate measures. Abhijit Mohanty’s story shows how sustainable agriculture has helped transform the lives of farmers in Odisha’s backward Kalahandi district.

Himanshu Upadhyaya examines a CAG audit report to point out the blatant non-compliance of environmental laws largely by the Forest officials.

The media is partisan and the government corrupt. In this environment, the committed reporter has no choice but to go out and investigate with a hidden camera. But such sting operations are not a substitute for investigative reporting; as a result even serious revelations are quickly forgotten, says Arun Sadhu.

As 'limited war' doctrine evolves to 'limited nuclear war', the strategic necessities as well as their implications for the polity must be repeatedly examined, says Firdaus Ahmed.

Dilip D'Souza on finding hope in a landscape scarred with hatred, killing, looting, divides.

Firdaus Ahmed on the continuing need to guard against over-zealous security managers.

The furore over the counting of minorities in the armed forces has taken attention away from what such a survey might reveal. Are the minorities adequately represented in the security services? This question too should concern secular-minded citizens, says Firdaus Ahmed.

Tibet lies at the heart of Indo-Chinese disputes. To focus on Arunachal or Tawang alone is not only to miss the wood for the trees, but also to play in to the hands of China. India must bring Tibet back into focus, writes Brahma Chellaney.

In Advani's worldview, populist sorrow over the Babri Masjid demolition, and Narendra Modi's re-election after the Gujarat riots amount to democratic endorsement of whatever happened, and is sufficient political accountability. Thankfully, the Supreme Court doesn't agree, notes Firdaus Ahmed.

An Expert Group in the Planning Commission calls for a more development-led approach to people's resistance, and a renewed commitment by the State to the democratic system. K S Subramanian says a lot of people should read the report.

The struggle to wrest back interpretations of Islam from the extremists could give security a boost, but more importantly, it could halt the marginalisation and ghettoisation of Muslims in India, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

A future government that is without the check of a strong opposition could strike out on a course that is markedly divergent from India's past record of abstinence from geo-political conflicts, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

The International Day of Peace, celebrated on September 21 every year, has little meaning for people living in conflict areas. Like the Manipuri women, Anjulika Thingnam talks to, who feel that decades-old violence in Manipur has not only increased but taken many different forms.

The findings of a 2012 Lancet study on death by suicide in India reveal the alarming trend of suicide among those under the age of 29. Comparing the Lancet figures with NCRB data, Shambhu Ghatak highlights the real extent of the problem and identifies some of the key causes.

While any act of self-killing is tragic and worthy of attention, one cannot help wonder why the proportion of male suicides in the country steadily rises with age. Take a look at the stark and sustained picture revealed by the data published by the NCRB.

Two years after Kerala imposed an indefinite ban on endosulfan, there is much suffering in evidence, as well as the fear that the ban may be lifted. Ramesh Menon reports.

For the poor, the choice is often between health care in private systems that are beyond their reach, or death. That is a choice no citizen should be forced to make. To overcome this, the idea of a right to health should foreground policy debates on health care, says Kalpana Sharma.

They forage the city, collecting and sorting often hazardous waste when the city sleeps and by day they are gone. Most of them are women and we have no long-term policy in place that looks at their welfare or health, writes Kalpana Sharma.

The public's perception that government facilities and services are poor has led them to abandon these in favour of private providers. But those are not necessarily better, writes R Balasubramaniam.

Medical services are today driven by needs and definitions out of sync with the realities of the masses. In conversation with Pamela Philipose, health activist Imrana Qadeer argues why health should be seen through the prism of the various structural components of society - caste, class and gender.

Despite the highest legal protections, the population of the chiru continues to decline, raising doubts over enforcement standards for the protection of endangered species. Kanchi Kohli looks ahead to the hearing in the Supreme Court, and hopes the court will affirm the basic premises behind conservation efforts.

In the 'village of widows' near the Line of Control, women had become accustomed to living off aid and alms. But in 2001, a group of women, part of Athwaas, decided to try to make things better, and something that was impossible to contemplate even six years ago, has now happened. Ashima Kaul reports.

The atrocities inflicted upon women in the strife-ridden Valley and the fear and oppression under which they live continuously are poignantly depicted in Ocean of Tears, a documentary reviewed by Shoma A. Chatterji

The award by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kishenganga hydroelectric project has several dimensions that could hold important lessons for settling water disputes within the country, says Shripad Dharmadhikary.