The increasing power and influence of veterans of the Indian army, known for their natural affinity towards the right wing regime in power, holds important implications especially when one considers the extent of its permeation into the serving structure. Firdaus Ahmed explains.

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.

Firdaus Ahmed deconstructs the various levels of state and individual dynamics that have led to India’s recent military doctrine of ‘disproportionate response’ as evident in various instances of encounters and killings, including the recent crackdown at the Myanmar border.

Nothing is lost by abandoning the principle of seniority, but the armed forces need restructuring says Nitin Pai.

Firdaus Ahmed reflects on the possibility that there is a budding pushback from the army commanders to their Chief’s increasing proximity with the ruling party at the Center.

Pokhran-II  happened on May 1998, Firdaus Ahmed writes if nuclear weapons have made us more secure in these last twenty years.

From lumpen political elements to the courts, various parties have, in their own ways, come out against toll plazas along different highways in the country, but Darryl D’Monte makes a strong case for collection of charges from motorists.

In March this year, Gil Penalosa of the Toronto-based NGO 8-80 Cities spoke in Mumbai and Bangalore of his global vision for liveable cities. Concluding his coverage of Penalosa’s talk, Darryl D’Monte explains why, despite a few isolated efforts, India requires a giant leap in initiative and attitudes to realise that vision.

In a changing landscape for power production and transmission, Indian Railways and the Government will need to make new choices, says a new report from Brookings India.

It is now over three years since the wiping out of tigers in the Sariska reserve. Sariska was India's second tiger crisis in less than two decades. Have the issues that arose as a result of the wakeup call been addressed? Malini Shankar finds out.

Mindless disruption of human settlements in the name of wildlife protection, and the corresponding restrictions on the rights of people living within forests destroys the very wildlife for which it is being done. The story of the Asiatic lions of Gir bears witness to this, writes Nandini K Oza.

Two tigers have been relocated from Ranthambore to Sariska tiger reserve, but wildlife conservationists are not about to rejoice, given the extent of work pending at Sariska to reverse past wrongs. Malini Shankar digs deeper.

The tribal is invariably the crucial link in the poacher’s grisly chain in Indian forests. Their alienation has directly placed India’s precious wildlife and biodiversity under threat. Malini Shankar has more.

A fragile grassland ecosystem combined with skewed thrust on conservation of forest lands vis-a-vis the arid dry grasslands paints a bleak future for the Great Indian Bustard, whose numbers are fast dwindling. Malini Shankar reports.

Farmers in Andhra Pradesh's Warangal district are doing the math, and learning that the chemistry that kills their pests is taking its toll on them as well. Ramesh Menon reports.

Kasturi Das discusses the challenges for conventional farmers who may want to adopt organic practices.

The Cancun fiasco shows that the industrialised countries have failed to bring in meaningful trade reforms in agriculture, says Devinder Sharma.

New Delhi's policy-makers are busy bartering the millions of jobs in agriculture for the far fewer ones with outsourcing firms in the cities, says Devinder Sharma.

The registration of Geographical Indications in the country has been slow to get off the ground. At a time when spurious rip-offs are abundant, the government isn't paying adequate attention to ensure speedier registration that would help tap the potential markets for India's rich bioversity. Varupi Jain reports.

When technological change has the potential to put the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people at risk, it must be regulated differently from other products in a free market. Blindly promoting innovation, as is now being done with genetically engineered crops, is self-defeating, writes Suman Sahai.

A range of criticisms raised at a recent seminar in Mumbai are a sufficient indication of the extent to which SEZs are being pushed as a government policy without any public consultation on their pros and cons. The seminar, on SEZs and their implications for urban planning, was held at the Rachana Sansad School of Architecture. Darryl D'Monte reports.

In search of new funds to keep the growth story alive, the Centre opens the doors to foreign investment a little further.

India's current account deficit reached alarming levels in the year 2012-13. Kannan Kasturi provides a historical context and lucid explanation of the phenomenon and rues the government's shocking lack of action.

A recent editorial in The New York Times rightly recognises the flaws of a growth model driven by lower trade barriers. But Devinder Sharma wonders if the American daily will take a stand and extend its arguments to champion the cause of all nations, including India.

Most measures of inflation over the last couple of months point to an encouraging downward movement in price indices; Shambhu Ghatak deconstructs these measures and quotes observations of the RBI to show why it may still be premature to take low inflation for granted.

P Sainath joins migrants fleeing the desperate conditions in Mahbubnagar, seeking a meagre living in faraway places
Part II : The wrong route out?

June 2003, Mahbubnagar bus depot, Telangana, AP - The mercury is coming up on 46°, maybe 47°C as the passengers arrive. It's the bus to Mumbai and its 58 seats will be more than full. Perhaps at the starting point itself.

It's a temperature at which you hate everybody and arguments driven by colourful prose ring out in the bus depot (and on the buses). The travellers, like lakhs of others in this poorest of Andhra Pradesh's districts, are voting with their feet. Most of them are tiny farmers and landless workers. The biggest group consists of Lambada adivasis. There are many poor dalits too. All getting out of a situation they find intolerable. In some estimates, close to a third of the district's populace could be working outside it just now.

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.

P Sainath makes the case for sustainable rhetoric.

The India Shining advertisement campaign is a government-media joint venture, says P Sainath.

P Sainath on the fault lines in Andhra that led to the ouster of the Chandrababu Naidu led Telugu Desam Party.

P Sainath.

Church income has fallen sharply as the laity have gone into debt in Wayanad. But the larger reality is also more complex. While the church does reflect the pain of its farmer base, it is also, in some cases, a source of at least a few of the dues that worry them, notes P Sainath.

Prior to 1995, KSRTC did not have a single bus on this route, but nowadays there are 24 trips between Manathavady in Wayanad and Kutta in Kodagu, Karnataka. By the second stop on the journey, there is not a seat vacant. P Sainath continues his series on the agrarian crisis in Wayanad.

While editors and columnists sang hosannas to the brave new world, the resident of Rashtrapati Bhavan showed he had not lost his connection with ordinary people. P Sainath remembers former President K R Narayanan, who passed away this week.

Disputes over output do not hide the trouble Maharashtra's cotton economy is in. Small farmers face another year of huge losses. The role of nature is very minor compared to conscious policy measures that have undermined the farmer and world cotton prices, writes P Sainath.

Those turning to the Government 'helpline' in Mahbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh, learn the hard way what happens when the little farmer of the countryside runs into the large apparatus of the state. P Sainath reports on a farmer's near-death brush with the government's promise of relief.

The Prime Minister's upcoming visit to Vidarbha has had an impact even before he's reached there. It would, however, be a transient impact if he does not see through the charade. The mess there starts right at the top. Vidarbha's condition is the product of design, not decay, writes P Sainath.

Claims of a cotton bumper crop in Maharashtra have faded. Farmers feel such talk was meant to push prices down further. Procurement delays could also force many to sell in distress to private buyers, writes P Sainath.

This time three years ago, there were around 300 cotton procurement centres at work in Maharashtra. This year that number is 56. The farmers are being pushed towards private traders. And much lower prices, writes P Sainath.

The rural employment guarantee programme is life-saving. This time round, the poor have slightly more money than they did earlier. But all prices are up. P Sainath reports.

Freebies for the IPL - at a time of savage food subsidy cuts for the poor - benefit four men who make the Forbes Billionaire List of 2010 and a few other, mere multi-millionaires, notes P Sainath.

The Delhi High Court's dismissal of Ashok Chavan's petition and the CIC's orders to the Press Council to make its report on 'paid news' public promise many blushes for Big Media and platinum-tier politicians, writes P Sainath.

The more crooked a leader, the more he trumpets his own patriotism, the more he pronounces who else is patriotic, says Dilip D'Souza.

Was the salt march an essentially libertarian stand against taxes and government, was it about non-violence, or simply an assault on British rule via its weakest link? The more I reflect on Gandhi, the more I think that his enduring legacy is that you can find your own message in him, says Dilip D'Souza.

Governments have been changing the rules of the RTI Act, trying all sorts of things to dilute its provisions. Most of these are done without consulting the public. Navya P K reports.

The efforts of metals major Hindalco to mine bauxite from Mali Parbat in Odisha has run up against stiff resistance from local Kondh adivasis, who wouldn’t shy away from militancy to protect their ecology, if needed. Javed Iqbal explores why they reject ‘industrial development’.

Close to 5500 hectares of land in six states, acquired for 52 SEZs, were subsequently de-notified and diverted for commercial purposes! Himanshu Upadhyaya draws attention to this and other findings in the CAG audit of SEZs, which leave several questions unanswered.

Policies on development have been ignored with impunity. Little wonder, then, that the language of people's demands now centers on "rights", says Videh Upadhyay.

Jayprakash Narayan on the recent SC judgement that reinstated mandatory discloures from election candidates.

Jayaprakash Narayan criticizes Parliament's moves to limit diversity of opinion among lawmakers, and to appropriate all authority to a few powerful leaders.