The Delhi Police's booklet containing tips for women from the Northeast to be safe in the capital exposes only their own need for sensitivity training. Not surprisingly, many northeastern students in Delhi are incensed at being portrayed as responsible for their own problems, writes Kalpana Sharma.

The sulphur content of diesel in India is 350 particles per million, twenty times that of the United States. Diesel exhaust is far more hazardous than petrol exhaust. Yet, diesel cars in Indian cities are rising with the association of automobile manufacturers pushing hard for it. Darryl D'Monte has more.

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.

The Supreme Court has ordered a go-slow on waste-to-incineration technology that may be potential harmful to public health, but the MNRE is guided more by its focus on tackling urban waste. Kanchi Kohli reports.

It will require a change in the DNA and design of the city for a reduction in the number of rapes in Delhi. Addressing the structural problems of Delhi is a critical component of improving the situation, argues Jacob John.

It will require a change in the DNA and design of the city for a reduction in the number of rapes in Delhi. Addressing the structural problems of Delhi is a critical component of improving the situation, argues Jacob John.

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.

Venu Govindu reviews The Mahatma and the Poet : Letters and Debates between Gandhi and Tagore 1915-1941, compiled and edited by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya.

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.

Hundreds of Pakistani Hindus have taken refuge in India, seeking a better life, especially after the present ruling party had promised in its election manifesto to make India the ‘natural home’ for  all persecuted Hindus. But has India kept its word? Devanik Saha meets the refugees to seek an answer.

As the refugee crisis deepens in Syria, visuals of millions of people hoping to catch a train to a better life fill the media space. Shalini Bhutani reflects on the state of refugee policies in the South Asian region while remembering her own father’s experience weeks before the India-Pakistan partition.

Rohith Vemula's death was the end of his dreams of becoming another Carl Sagan. But so many other dreams have perished because of caste-based persecution that has been a blight on higher education and professional practice in this country. Shahina Nafeesa's touching personal essay, translated by Renu Ramanath, brings out deeply disturbing realities.

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.

The shocking physical abuse inflicted on police horse Shaktimaan has rightly created a furore in society. But cruelty towards animals does not just manifest itself in stray, isolated incidents. Shoma Chatterji draws attention to the treatment of animals in film making and stresses the need for strict monitoring.

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

The World Bank's Inspection Panel finds that a Bank-backed coal mine disrupted livelihoods by violating guidelines on resettlement, supervision, and the environment.

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.

"There is this growing feeling among the adivasis of Jharkhand that in this newly created state, given to them only in name, they stand at the crossroads," runs the commentary in Ab Aur Waqt Nahin, a documentary film directed by Abhijoy Karlekar. Shoma Chatterji reviews the film.

A conniving chain of regulators, police, and contractors is profiteering upon the backs of gruelling labour by migrants. Jaideep Hardikar reports on the exploitation.

The Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court has found illegalities in central government clearances to Sterlite Industries' bauxite mining project in Orissa. The committee has recommended (to the apex court) against diversion of forestlands for the project. Kanchi Kohli reports.

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.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is being implemented in Orissa in stops and starts. But by pressing for information on NREGA benefits using the sunshine law, citizens are able to hold officials accountable and are able to remedy the situation by themselves in some cases. Pradeep Baisakh has more.

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.

With Mittal Steel moving into India, it becomes even more important to look at the firm's poor environmental and social track record around the world in its rise to become the world's largest steel maker. There are crucial lessons for the governments of Orissa and Jharkhand, but are they listening, asks Sunita Dubey.

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.

Thousands of miles away from India, the Norwegian Government's pension fund has recognized what has gone wrong with a global corporation's mining interests in Orissa's Niyamgiri hills. But the decision will be made in the Supreme Court, and things do not look promising, notes Kanchi Kohli.

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.

Despite many shortcomings in implementation, an array of examples and a government willing to move on public pressure are showing that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is making progress in Orissa. Pradeep Baisakh reports.

The proposed natural resource extraction in Angul district and other nearby places in Orissa will devastate the land and its already-suffering people even further. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

Environmentalist Ashish Kothari discusses the politics behind the approval of the POSCO project, and how the FRA is faring in Odisha, in conversation with Pradeep Baisakh.

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.

Rejection of regularisation of mines operating beyond lease areas, and compensation for other violations being used for tribal welfare are among the recommendations of a recent report on mining in the state. Kanchi Kohli places the key points in context.

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.

Acknowledgement of the declining utility of military force in a nuclear environment may hold a peace dividend that includes Kashmir says Firdaus Ahmed

Firdaus Ahmed provides insights from the subcontinent's brush with 'war' last year -- Operation Parakram.

The army may have delivered on its mandate of ensuring the return of an environment more conducive to law and order since more than a decade, in Kashmir. But the recent spate of suicides and fratricides within are showing that the army is under stress, a slide that the political side can and must prevent, says Firdaus Ahmed.

The United Stated-led Global War on Terror is all set to come up to India's doorstep this summer, with Pakistan's move from being a 'frontline state' to becoming a theatre of war. For India, a reflexive anti-Pakistani stance or a fashionable pro-American one are not the only choices, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

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.

The most intractable conflicts in South Asia have remained unresolved because of the inflexibility and dogmatism of the contending parties. It is time for them to move beyond self-justification towards acknowledging and embracing the beauty of compromise, writes Ramachandra Guha.

As the spectre of communal violence raises its ugly head yet again in the build-up towards elections, India Together talks to Ramachandra Guha to explore the threats to the secular imagination in India and the hopes for religious pluralism in the democracy.

What happens to the mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives of the Muslim men who are rounded up, rightly or wrongly, for being terrorists? From society to media, none listens to the voices of these women, the results of which could be dangerous finds Puja Awasthi.

When malnutrition among children is widespread, the government is slashing funds allocated to the mid day meal scheme that covers most of the vulnerable children. Questioning this approach of the government, E S Ramamurthy started a petition to raise the funding for mid-day meal scheme to cover minimum nutritional needs of a child.

Telangana’s free registration of plain paper land sale initiative to digitally clean up its land records not only benefits its dispossessed farmers but makes land governance transparent, reports Manipadma Jena.

In the Nandesari industrial area and surrounding it, the chemical pollution that has accompanied years of industrial growth has ravaged agriculture and public health. Surekha Sule reports.

The central government's decision to reintroduce the ban on non-iodised salt raised a controversy. For a lay person, it is difficult to see which side makes more sense – the one taken by protagonists of the ban, who include India's topmost experts on iodine deficiency, or that of the opponents. Darryl D'Monte looks into the arguments.

Vultures are nature's scavengers and their effectiveness in disposing off dead cattle has been a critical public health safeguard in India. But with the sub-continent losing 95% of its vulture population in just 15 years, scientists and conservationists have been scrambling to understand why, and propose remedies. Darryl D'Monte has more.

If public health systems are failing on account of certain causes, the solution should lie in fixing them. However, it appears instead that the state seems to be looking for an escape route from the problems of its own inefficiencies, says C V Madhukar.

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.