Stifled by a culture of incredulity, public and private lenders alike have made little progress in supporting women-run businesses, In such a scenario, self-help groups, better able to judge women's plans for themselves, have taken up the slack, but there is still a long road to travel for aspiring businesswomen. Puja Awasthi reports.

The eagerness to take up their issues themselves has not automatically led to a smooth start for the All India Muslim Women's Personal Law Board. But clearly, there is now more discussion of the issues that interest them. And that is a significant step in itself. Puja Awasthi reports.

Widows in India have lived on the margins of society for decades but the intervention of NGO Sulabh International, led by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, has brought new hope and colour in their lives. Ramesh Menon reports on one of the first celebrations in their new-found lives.

Manjari Singh reports on the opening of the Lucknow branch of Sheroes Hangout, a café run and managed by acid attack survivors under the guidance of the humanitarian organisation “Stop Acid Attacks”

Unequal distribution of resources has resulted in a shortage of land available for grazing. Anthra develops sustainable alternatives in consultation with affected groups.

Winning the elections to the 15th Lok Sabha elections in India was easier than chalking down and executing what the new United Progressive Alliance has to do in terms of governance. Ramesh Menon looks at some of the challenges ahead.

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.

The new class VII social science textbook in Kerala has become the cause of clashes. Groups agitating against the book allege its content is anti-religion, while the state curriculum board says it propagates religious tolerance. P N Venugopal reports on the controversy.

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. 

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.

Despite islands of progress and even a paradoxical government-run success, the larger picture of girls' education and their empowerment is dismal. There is an enormous gap between fact and paper fiction, and the task for feminists and activists is cut out, says Deepti Priya Mehrotra on the International Women's Day.

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 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.

It is because his own Party stopped taking Gandhi seriously that most young people in India grow up thinking of him as a pious crank, used only as a meaningless icon, writes Madhu Purnima Kishwar.

Raging violence across the state continues to take the lives of young men in Manipur. For the young widows left behind, the struggle for survival is fraught with newly added responsibilities, for which many of them are ill-prepared. Thingnam Anjulika Samom reports.

The Gujarat state government appears to have very little planned by way of support for the education of Muslim children. What's more the education department appears to be standing in the way of the embattled community's attempts to help itself. Deepa A has more.

Kalpana Sharma looks at the implications of the Nisha Sharma episode for our society.

Paul Wolfowitz's appointment as the head of the World Bank highlights the undemocratic nature of decision-making at the bank. His presidency will stand as a constant reminder that this institution, which calls on nations to exercise "good governance and democratisation" is run like a medieval monarchy, says George Monbiot.

Given the lack of any news about dowry deaths, dowry violence or dowry demands, one would have thought that the problem had disappeared. Far from it. In fact, it has become far more entrenched and taken new forms. Dowry is a symptom of a deeper disease that relates to how our society values women, writes Kalpana Sharma.

India's support for the Soviet Union ran counter to the traditions of its own national movement. In the same way, the Indian silence on Burma is in sharp contrast to our consistent support for the democratic opposition in apartheid-era South Africa, says Ramachandra Guha.

Bigotry is increasing as there is no strong action against it. If greatly talented Indians cannot safely and honourably practice their craft in our shared homeland, there is little hope for the rest of us, writes Ramachandra Guha.

Rather than seek to dominate or tower above other nations, the republic of India must seek to be less discontented and less divided within, writes Ramachandra Guha.

Politicians would like us to believe that tackling the Maoists now is urgent, while development is only possible in the long run. Not true, writes Ashwin Mahesh.

Women are no longer content with the status quo, and unwilling to wait till men dish out empowerment as a special privilege or favour. We must accelerate this trend, writes R Balasubramaniam.

In spite of its gender bias, India has women in leading positions in politics. But this does not herald a new age of gender equality, writes Ramachandra Guha.

A multitude of grassroots movements are emerging across the country in resistance to the mainstream economy and polity. These initiatives are exploring sustainable, equitable and  just paths to human well-being. Ashish Kothari and Pallav Das offer an insight into the need for such movements.

Significantly, the copy was less sensational than the headlines in almost all the papers, says Ammu Joseph.

Conceived as an anti-poverty effort, the Navodayam project in Andhra Pradesh has grown with government support into a full-fledged media entity taking up coverage of serious local issues. Its members see themselves playing a vital role, and making a difference to the lives of lakhs of women in their districts. Shoma Chatterji reports.

With literacy levels increasing rapidly over the past decade, and more and more people having disposable incomes, the media's reach and influence is expanding. But has this expansion and power of media been translated into greater public good? This a haunting and troubling question, writes Jayaprakash Narayan.

Khabar Lahariya, run by Dalit and Kol women, has emerged as a truly rural newspaper that is read and respected by all sections of society in Chitrakoot. It is a small shining star on the media horizon that exposes the hollowness of the mainstream media, writes Kalpana Sharma

A mainstream Bollywood production in the making, titled Gulab Gang, draws heavily on the circumstances and even the name of a now-famous real life movement, but purports to be purely fictional. Shoma Chatterji explores the questions of ethics and creative morality that this raises.

Since 1979, this Kolkata school has pioneered an educational process where kids from different economic and social sections of society study, play and share together as equals.

There is a surprising hope in the most despairing places. It isn't often that many of us see this, but when we do, we are struck by the determination with which enormous deprivation is tackled by real heroes. Somnath Mukherji encounters the work of Tomorrow's Foundation in Kalighat, West Bengal.

In West Bengal, girls are being empowered to refuse early marriage thanks to a state government initiative that enables them to stay longer in school. The Kanyashree Prakalpa scheme has been remarkably successful in curbing child marriage and promoting girl child education, says Saadia Azim.

The concerns of Third World citizens have been routinely overlooked - until now, i.e., as technologies developed for animals are conveniently passed off as adequate for the world's poor as well, says Devinder Sharma.

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At a time when the government should be deeply troubled by the coronavirus pandemic and devising long-term health strategies, its inner circles are busy planning the upgrade of Parliament House and the Central Vista. But...

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Dynamo Dresden placed their entire squad into a 14-day quarantine on Saturday, just a week from the restart of the Bundesliga season, after the club reported two more cases of coronavirus.

In the last two months – after coming back from Amman, Jordan (where he secured Olympic quota in the 69kg category) – Vikas has been cooped up at his farmhouse in Bhiwani, Haryana, due to the pandemic-forced nationwide lockdown.

The first loan of Rs 322.40 crore from IDBI was issued to Siva’s Finland-based company Win Wind Oy (WWO) in October 2010, which became a non-performing asset three years later.

Masterji followed the men through glass doors on to a rectangular balustrade terrace, where the sea breeze blew into his hair.

Biting — yet sensitive. He’s a study in contrasts. Just like his books. Writer Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize in 2008 with his novel “White Tiger”. In the first interview given globally over his new book “Last Man in Tower”, Adiga now tells Srijana Mitra Das about being a small-town boy, falling in love with Mumbai, capturing the people and philosophies rich India overlooks, writing being his fate, generating controversy — and why he might just step away now.