A Shanghai-based university's ranking of world universities has relegated the highly-rated Indian Institute of Science and the IITs to the bottom of its list, shattering the comfortable assumptions of Indian academics who pride themselves on their achievements. Summiya Yasmeen reports.

For decades, there have been concerns that India's universities were being bogged down by the number of institutes they had to manage. Recently, the University Grants Commission accepted in principle that autonomy must be green-lighted. But debates on the freedom of institutions remain inconclusive, reports Deepa A.

Most private schools are not elite at all, contrary to public perception, and the Right to Education Act will let them run amok at the expense of the public education system, writes E S Ramamurthy.

Children in 21st century India are having to deal with a rapidly gathering danger: a degrading environment from pesticides, air pollution and unsafe toys to contaminated rivers and more. Ramesh Menon surveys the troubling landscape.

It is impossible to record society accurately if the content of our news is not drawn proportionately from the events and issues. And when the news is drawn in the right proportions, the morality of our development goals is preserved better. The India Together editorial.

Videh Upadhyay argues that adivasis will benefit greatly if the Provision of Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act (PESA) is implemented on the ground by the state governments.

Aarti Madhusudhan looks at volunteers, in this third part of her series on non-profit governance.

In a temple in Almora, thousands of devotees come every year with petitions on, believe it or not, judicial stamped paper, complete with details of their woes, and offer it to Golu Devta with a hope that justice will dawn, even if the courts have failed. Ramesh Menon reports.

Casteism and the state of our civil society were the major issues discussed at the recently held Difficult Dialogues conclave in Goa. It was organised by the South Asia Centre of the London School of Economics India Summit 2016 and the Television Trust for the Environment. Darryl D’Monte, who participated in one of the panel discussions, reports.

Men who think of themselves as allies and supporters of women need to break the culture of silence that surrounds rape, says Radhika Chopra.

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.

A severe drought and acute water and electricity shortage is ending self-sufficient agri-livelihoods in the six districts of Madhya Pradesh's Bundelkhand region. Sachin Kumar Jain and Sumika Rajput ring the warning bells.

Even as many pockets of the state, including its capital, battle the ravages of development and consumerism, a couple of villages visited by the author stand as examples of resilient local economies and lifestyles. Aditya Vikram Rametra describes what he saw here.

The India Together editorial

Dr Ilina Sen, well-known social activist and feminist scholar, who currently heads the Department of Women’s Studies in Mahatma Gandhi University, Wardha, Maharashtra speaks in detail to M Suchitra about her husband's trial and her appeal to the Chhatisgarh High Court.

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

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.

It appears that those at the bottom are getting richer - but sadly the maths just doesn't add up. George Monbiot doesn't buy the World Bank's arithmetic.

Unworkable policies conjured up in the guise of 'necessity' and 'national interest' merely perpetuate the discrimination women and girls endure, says Kalpana Sharma.

Indians continue to believe that we are the moderate nation and that Pakistan is extremist. But sometimes, what we observe isn't what we expect, says Kalpana Sharma.

Despite quality education, the mindset of people is not changing in this country, says Kalpana Sharma.

There is plenty of native intelligence among the people that is very useful in averting and responding to disasters. Planning for disaster management must see this as an asset. The top-down planning and implementation currently in vogue is a poor substitute for community participation, says Videh Upadhyay.

25 years ago, women's groups in this country fought for and succeeded to some extent in changing rape laws. More recently, one of the most regressive provisions of rape law was nullified. But the public spectacle made out of the rape of a Muzaffarnagar woman by her own father-in-law almost brings us back to square one, says Kalpana Sharma.

One often hears that the country's large population is at the heart of many of its troubles, but doing the numbers doesn't suggest anything of that sort. Still, in an important way, it does have to do with people. Here's how: some of the people don't think the rest of the people are even people, says Ashwin Mahesh.

It is no coincidence that it is women who have been targetted in the recent controversy over talking about pre-marital sex. If men voiced similar opinion, their remarks would have been overlooked. Women, apparently, should not speak about sex with this level of frankness, says Kalpana Sharma.

Crippling poverty, Naxalism and government bungling may have depressed the lives of poor women in Chhatisgarh, but there is now a shining ray of hope. 60,000 women have become trained community health volunteers and are making an impact, notes Kalpana Sharma.

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.

Why has this honest, intelligent, experienced man, whose appointment as prime minister in 2004 was so widely welcomed, been such a disappointment in office, asks Ramachandra Guha

There is an urgent need to make politics belong to the people. A big tweak of the way parties function is needed to ensure this, writes R Balasubramaniam.

Pope Francis’s Encyclical talks about poverty, social inequality, climate change, and other global crises mankind has created and proposes newer ways to resolve them. Ashish Kothari finds the Encyclical lacking in certain aspects but hopes that other religious and political leaders will learn to stand up and speak up like the Pope.

In the immediate aftermath of the 26 December tsunamis, many bloggers visited the affected areas. Their eyewitness accounts brought the horrors of the devastation to distant audiences and were instrumental in garnering widespread relief support, writes Rasika Dhavse.

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.

Seventeen years after the Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot restrict content on radio, it remains impossible for independent news to be aired on radio channels. Navya P K reports.

In the last 12 months, at least two radio stations have withdrawn their subscriptions to Radio Audience Measurement, the key measurement currency of listenership in India. Vaishnavi Vittal explores the covert conflict between the RAM provider and the radio operators and advertisers.

Shoma A. Chatterji writes about a film festival that lacks the glitz and glamour of stars, television cameras and paparazzi chasing famous people to freeze them for the media.

Watching Paan Singh Tomar, which resurrects a forgotten sports hero and his compelling life, Namrata Ganneri can't help but notice what's missing.

Is freedom of speech and expression deeply accepted in Indian society? Or is it merely a European cultural import that made its way along with the English language and appeared in the Constitution because of the founding fathers' genius? Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya reviews Freedom Song, a film and connects the dots.

The recently held Kolkata People’s Film Festival – an offshoot of the founding movement called The Cinema of Resistance – screened powerful documentaries and feature films portraying the struggle and resistance of the marginalised and downtrodden. Shoma Chatterji reports.

Though based on strong reporting, India’s Daughter remains restricted in its scope, and even strays from its purported objective, thanks to a very pronounced colonial supremacist gaze, writes Shoma Chatterji in a dispassionate review that cuts through the noise.

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.

Not many trace their way back to the human tragedy that has given rise to the culture of violence that marks Lalgarh today. The women do not appear scared of any police reaction in response to their protests. Soma Mitra has more.

Young women and girls in red light areas face extreme levels of desperation, stemming partly from poverty, but also because of sheer physical exploitation, even by husbands and fathers. Ruchi Choudhary reports.

Eleven years after journalist Rina Mukherjee was fired following her allegations of sexual harassment against a senior, the West Bengal Industrial Tribunal passes an order against The Statesman, offering hope of redress for other victims. Navya P K reports.

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.

Mother is prowling around the house like an overzealous detective looking for clues of my ineptitude as a homemaker. This is an old habit. In the past, when I once asked her to babysit while...

Coronavirus lockdowns and travel restrictions have forced people around the world to delay their nuptials or adapt to the unusual times by celebrating via web link. But in China -- where livestreaming is extremely popular -- some young couples are allowing anyone to watch their big day and even send them gifts.

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has proposed radical changes in the LBW laws, stating that a batsman should be given out leg before as long as the ball is hitting the stumps irrespective of the spot of its landing and impact.

Umar Akmal, who was found guilty of two charges under the PCB Anti-Corruption Code has refused to divulge details of his two meetings with suspected bookies. According to the source, Akmal had a meeting with two unidentified men in Defence Housing Society in Lahore. The PCB source said Akmal also gave conflicting statements before the Disciplinary Panel hearing on April 27.

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.