In a recent lathi charge on protesting student activists, Kerala's police used electric shock batons. The state's model of development has many votaries worldwide, but the savageness in police actions on mass programmes does not seem to be going away, reports Venugopal P N.

Eight years and counting since the first local body elections, only a handful of the panchayats has woken up to the powers devolved into them. The Panchayat Academy is working to change that, helping local leaders learn from and teach each other how much more meaningful their leadership can be. Krithika Ramalingam reports.

Kerala's lottery regulation is in a mess. Liquor contractors are getting away without paying license fees that are precious revenue to a debt trapped government. The High Court passes a stricture on a minister over sandalwood smuggling. P N Venugopal finds much wrong with the Chandy administration.

When Executive Engineer S K Nagarwal reported corruption in railway track laying in West Bengal, his saga with colluding officials and contractors began. Now, supported by the S K Dubey foundation, a citizens' forum has sprung up to protect Nagarwal and other whistleblowers. Varupi Jain reports.

What does it take to make the bureaucracy responsive to the needs and expectations of citizens? A recent workshop in New Delhi on Developing Institutions for Public Accountability in Urban Services explored this question. Darryl D'Monte recounts some key observations made at the workshop.

In our system of criminal justice, the state takes up the responsibility to prosecute offenders on behalf of victims. Although public prosecutors are theoretically independent, in practice they face a number of improper influences. Bikram Jeet Batra surveys the prosecution system in India, and finds it in need of much change.

Two different bodies established by successive governments have made recommendations for sweeping changes to the system of representation and governance in urban areas. The opportunity is now at hand to bring these together, and ensure that wards are accessible and accountable to urban residents. Vinay Baindur reports.

An early warning by China on impending floods in the Sutlej river helped avert major loss to human lives in June. Yet, India's disaster preparedness plans have been found wanting. India still does not have reliable information from China about glacial lakes that are prone to flooding the Himalayan rivers, writes Sudhirendar Sharma.

Quick identification of the London bombers of 7/7 and early success in making an arrest testifies to an excellent investigation by Scotland Yard. In contrast, getting photographs, fingerprints and other records from government departments are far more difficult for India's police detectives, says Arvind Verma.

Reforms in urban governance are long overdue, and the cities are croaking under the weight of their neglect. But the National Urban Reforms Mission may be too much medicine, bypassing citizen input and consultation in a hasty drive for change. Vinay Baindur reports.

The Police Act Drafting Committee's term came to an end on 31 January. Any significant attempt to reform the Indian police must begin with the men at the bottom, the constabulary, not at the top. However, such changes would call for a struggle against the nature of Indian society itself, says former IPS officer K S Subramanian.

Environmental clearances in India have always raised questions, as noted in many reports in India Together. For years now, NGOs have opposed the Ministry of Environment, sometimes bitterly. Last year, the Ministry proposed a 're-engineered' regulation, and found a new opposition - the state governments. Kanchi Kohli has more.

Two years after being appointed to the National Advisory Council, Aruna Roy has decided to decline a new term. While expressing happiness over some of the work the NAC has been able to do in the past, she now believes that the space for the advisory body to function as a forum for public consultation has diminished.

Both the Supreme Court and the Prime Minister recognised that rehabilitation for Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river was incomplete, but neither was willing to fulfil their legal responsibility to actually stop construction. Instead, the the Shunglu Committee is now "independently" investigating rehabilitation and it appears compromised, worries Mike Levien.

Still dodging the constitutional requirement for devolution of powers to local bodies, the Centre is now demanding that cities fall in line with the 74th Amendment. The National Urban Renewal Mission is deeply flawed, and civic groups that have proposed steps to rectify it should be heeded, writes Kathyayini Chamaraj.

Police officers are uniform in the belief that political interference in their work is uniquitous. They also see themselves as crime fighters first and foremost, and hence view all other work as a distraction. But in fact, says Arvind Verma, there is little truth to either of these beliefs.

Held in Geneva last month, the Rotterdam Convention was attended by 500 participants from 140 governments, UN organisations, and NGOs. India sided with Canada and few other nations to prevent the listing of chrysotile asbestos, a known carcinogen. R Sridhar has more.

The Supreme Court issued six directives in 2006 on bringing about police reforms in the states to make the police free from political interference and accountable to the citizens. Kathyayini Chamaraj analyses the state governments' responses and finds much amiss.

The government has recently announced its Resettlement and Rehabilitation policy. Even though there are some important improvements in it -- the move is timed during rising violence and resentment around the eastern region -- it appears to sidestep the tough questions. Shripad Dharmadhikary has the early verdict.

Although telecentres have caught the imagination of government, their adoption is caught in a false pedagogy that treats entitlements as services and citizens as customers who pay service charges. The focus on putting a price on governance must be stemmed, writes Vivek Vaidyanathan.

The state is by far the biggest litigant, and contributes a large part to the staggering backlog clogging the courts. The Centre, States and public sector companies determinedly appeal every adverse verdict, despite winning only a small minority of them eventually. Kannan Kasturi reports.

The health, efficiency, relevance and role of our over-centralised security agencies in an ostensibly federal set up need greater debate. This is all the more important, as the politicians' approach to the nature of violence in the country lacks seriousness, writes K S Subramanian.

While successful efforts are sadly rare, a few telecentre initiatives have done good work in bridging the digital divide and have positively impacted disadvantaged communities, writes Vivek Vaidyanathan.

There is wide-spread agreement that horse trading in the political arena is immoral and undesirable, and should be illegal. But what is the actual position of law on this? Kannan Kasturi looks back at the trail so far.

Systematic and chronic under-investment in public goods such as education, law enforcement and infrastructure has already impacted our cities. And yet, we have not asked and answered a number of questions as a nation. C V Madhukar begins a new series.

These are unusual times - when even the most capitalist and free market proponents of the world see an important role for governments. But it is not a time to to look at government challenges through ideological prisms alone, writes C V Madhukar.

The loss of faith in government can be extremely detrimental to the very foundation of our democracy. Improved performance by government is a national imperative, writes C V Madhukar.

A permanent solution should be sought to defend ships and their crew who, refusing to be party to unscrupulous trade, end up being eliminated, with their deaths portrayed as suicides, writes Shabeena Zaheer who lost her son.

Law enforcement cannot make a distinction between 'our' goons and 'their' goons. It has to make a distinction between goons and law abiding citizens, and only then can we be secure, writes Harish Narasappa.

Policy issues in the mainstream media tend to be about the economy. It is time that we pay closer attention to education, health, environment and foreign affairs, writes Ramachandra Guha.

Goa's land allocation policy to SEZs has been indicted for massive irregularities by the Comptroller and Auditor General. The list of violations is more or less a case the fence eating the crop, finds out Himanshu Upadhyaya.

People are shunning civil litigation in the states where there is no hope of obtaining justice in a reasonable amount of time, where instead of relief from the court all they can expect is a new date for the next court hearing. Kannan Kasturi reports.

Jhunjhunu's example can be emulated by other towns of this size. The work of the local groups has been diluted by institutionalisation, but mobilising people continues to pay dividends, writes Kalpana Sharma.

Even as the CAG audit findings find faults with SSNNL for diverting the central funds from canal construction to unintended purposes, permission has been granted to raise the Narmada dam height. Himanshu Upadhyaya. points out this irony and more.

Four years on, positives seem to be weighed down by negatives -- thanks mainly to the aggressive land acquisition for mega real estate projects by the ruling LDF coalition. P N Venugopal wonders if the government’s confidence is at its low ebb.

This time around, there is too much pressure - from opposition, media, and people at large - on the standing committee and Parliament for them to sit over the bill and let it lapse, writes Mathew Prasad Idiculla.

Six years ago the Supreme Court issued a detailed order listing the steps needed to insulate police work from politics, and to make it more accountable. But the progress since then has been slow. Navya P K reports.

Governments have taken to announcing monetary compensation for victims' kin in cases of criminal acts as well, but it hardly masks their failure to impose the rule of law or bring about systemic improvements, says Harish Narasappa.

A spate of arrests and high profile cases may have led to a partial let-up in the feudalism and violence in the politics of northern Kerala, but many are disillusioned as newer forms of evil take root, finds Nileena M S.

Apathetic, inefficient government and mindless pursuit of Western consumerist ideals by a few have brought India's marginalized millions to a state where the judiciary has to intervene to enforce the most basic of rights. Often, without effect, as Sakuntala Narasimhan finds.

As the massive disaster in flood-stricken Uttarakhand unfolds, Himanshu Upadhyaya draws attention to the glaring inadequacies in disaster management preparedness and risk reduction in the state, as well as the nation, as exposed by recent audits.

The decision of the MoEF to allow only organisations accredited by the Quality Council of India to carry out environment impact assessment of interventions might sound promising, but is likely to achieve little. Kanchi Kohli discusses the inherent flaws in such notification.

Some of the most populous cities in the country are the ones that suffer most from liveability issues due to crumbling infrastructure, congestion, pollution and associated problems. Sujaya Rathi, Anantha Lakshmi discuss a potential solution.

The annual Constitutional Day lecture organized by non-profit organisation Daksh this year will be delivered by Usha Ramanathan on 26 November. Find the details here.

Municipal corporations in India have neither any grip on the number of staffers employed and their skillsets nor any mechanism to ascertain these. Madhavi Rajadhyaksha discusses several studies including the ASICS from Janaagraha to expose what ails urban local bodies.

On the eve of Teachers’ Day, PM Narendra Modi called upon teachers across the country to inculcate broader perspectives and greater social responsibility among students. But given the shortage of teachers and crippling social malpractices, how realistic is that vision?

A recent consultation between global and local urbanisation experts and bureaucrats focussed on securing Mumbai’s position in the map of ‘Globally Fluent Cities,’ as envisaged by an international initiative. Darryl D’Monte draws attention to a few critical issues that should be included in such deliberation.

From Bangalore to Bengaluru, or from Bombay to Mumbai, do name changes signify attempts to shake off colonial shackles, instances of linguistic one-upmanship or merely political agenda? Supriya Unni Nair delves deeper into the practice and finds an interesting history.

India Rivers Week held in November 2014 was a first-of-its-kind gathering in New Delhi, which celebrated rivers and those trying to protect them, while charting out a road map to mitigate the threats they confront. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports on the proceedings.

India’s decision and actions in appointing the first president of the BRICS New Development Bank will signal its thrust on social and environmental sustainability, not only within the new financial order but also domestically, writes Sunita Dubey.