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.

In Attapady block of Kerala's Palakkad district, illicit liquor is taking a heavy toll among the adviasis. Addiction to the brew has led to many deaths and suicides, even as a complacent and complicit administration looks on. M Suchitra reports.

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.

Over 1400 families who had started living on the rubber plantation of Harrisons & Crossfields -- the Chengara struggle -- will now get land in a deal brokered by the Chief Minister in the presence of the Leader of the Opposition. P N Venugopal takes stock.

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. 

Decades of struggle and innumerable sacrifices are involved in the long history of women's movement in India. Deepti Priya Mehrotra speaks to some of the exemplary leaders who recall the history of women’s movement and their role in it.

The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 introduced in the parliament proposes a ban on commercial surrogacy. Shoma Chatterji finds out if this will help in checking exploitation of women.

The Chingrajpara slum in Bilaspur, Chhatisgarh is the city's largest of nearly 50 slums. Why are the children not in school? Why is a schooling cost of Rs 318 per year per child a tall figure for poor parents? Ashima Sood chronicles the lived experience of poverty from her visits of 2002 and 2003.

Tribals constitute 32 per cent of Chhatisgarh's population. Yet, four years after the state was born, the status of the tribal population does not seem to be improving. At a recent meeting in the state, a network of journalists and activists took stock of the situation. Surekha Sule reports.

A simple way to claim that everyone affected by dam construction is properly rehabilitated is to make a list of affected persons - and then leave off thousands of them from the list. This has been the history of rehabilitation in the Narmada valley. Himanshu Upadhyaya notes that after many years, the game isn't quite adding up in the courts.

The displaced people of the Narmada valley have long argued that the states and the Centre have shortchanged them - ignoring the claims of many, offering uncultivable land in exchange, and going ahead with dam construction even before they are resettled. A recent Supreme Court verdict proves they were right all along, says Medha Patkar.

As the demands for justice draw embarrassingly close to the PM, the decision to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam is being reviewed. But promises are nothing new, and officials have always known that they can be broken with impunity. Should we expect anything different this time? The India Together editorial.

Once a medical approach is accepted, its use tends to spread across the population and income groups. We therefore need to start preparing for the advance of personalised medicine, writes Sujatha Byravan

Collective Action for Rural Development (CAFORD) encourages families in Andhra's Prakasam district to keep their children in school.

The India Committee of the Netherlands reports on agri-business corporations' wage and labour practices in India, and calls on the EU to improve its standards and monitoring.
Interact: Are Indians more to blame than MNCs?
October 2003 update: MNCs agree to end child labour

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.

The Confederation of Voluntary Associations discovered that religious symbolism is best left to personal choice; instead, harmony is more easily attained by linking peace with people.

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.

Over 230,000 people in hundreds of villages to be displaced, tens of thousands of acres submerged, wildlife and forest lands inundated - the Polavaram project will repeat the great tragedy of displacement and environmental damage that has marked so many other projects in the country. R Uma Maheshwari 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.

Ila D. Hukku portrays the wide range of unmet needs for children in the nation.

Shivani Chaudhry

Over the next two decades, Indians are going to see an enormous challenge to the value systems of the past, being replaced by the new value systems of globalisation says Ramesh Ramanathan.

Women must be encouraged to speak up, express their own truths and create solidarity networks. Only then will things change, says Deepti Priya Mehrotra.

12 March this year marks the 75th anniversary of Gandhi's famous 1930 march from Sabarmati to Dandi to break the exploitative salt tax law. With the ruling Congress party staking a claim to the legacy of the march, Venu Madhav Govindu comments on its true symbolism.

One year ago, Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, the newly elected Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh had taken the World Bank heads on by calling its policy 'an anti-people condition for lending.' But his government has recently negotiated a loan of Rs 7,510 crores from the bank. Sudhirendar Sharma says Reddy is taking the legacy of his predecessor forward.

What gets measured gets done. The First Annual Survey of Education Report has helped assess the scale of problems in public education better. It is now up to education ministries and administrators, as well as civil society to show progress in specific indicators, until the goal of universal education is met, writes Ashok Kamath.

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.

The Constitution has clearly drawn the Lakshman Rekha for both the Legislature and the Judiciary to maintain their independence in their respective functioning. But what happens when either judges or lawmakers cross this line? Pradeep Baisakh presents an overview of that much maligned term, judicial over-reach.

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.

In India, other states look at Kerala's record of firsts with envy. Dr Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate, has hailed it as a model. But Kerala, caught in a web of paradoxes, is not what it seems, writes Ramesh Menon.

The primary role of the navy is the protection of the seaboards. Having been shown up by the recent failure, the security establishment now has to get the strategy right, says Pavan Nair.

"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.

Instead of bothering itself with luxury pens, a truly egalitarian society would focus its attention on the emancipatory possiblities inherent in wielding a pen, write Venu Madhav Govindu and Deepak Malghan.

Popular ideas of development and management of common resources should be revisited in light of this year's Economics Nobel Prize, given to Prof. Elinor Ostrom, writes Prakash Kashwan.

If we want to accelerate innovation in the marketplace and public squares of our society, we need also to invest more in design, writes Aditya Dev Sood.

The inability of India to adequately provide for its own population no longer reflects a failure of implementation, but rather of a failure of innovation, writes Aditya Dev Sood.

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.

Subramaniam Vincent reviews the latest Kamal Hassan starrer, Anbe Sivam.

Kalpavriksh - LEAD India, paperback, Rs.100 / U.S. $10
Related Article: The Road to Destruction

Uma Chakravarty turns the pages of Deepti Priya Mehrotra's stories of single mothers.

Jemma Purdey reviews Yuva, Mani Ratnam's latest effort, and finds an unexplained mix of uplifting and sad realities.

Iftikhar Gilani's ordeal as an unfairly prosecuted victim of the Official Secrets Act is now behind him, but his record of his experience, published in his book My Days in Prison, reminds us there are many others battling the same harsh treatment under the archaic and oppressive law. Deepa A reports.

Shashi Tharoor finds that Nehru's imprint on India rests on four tenets. But each of these must be understood in light of the events and values of its own time. Our judgement of this important figure cannot be determined exclusively by our approval or repudiation of those tenets today. Venu Madhav Govindu reviews The Invention of India.

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.