What is behind the suicides in Vidarbha? Is it drought or lack of irrigation, like some are saying? Why have over 550 farmers ended their lives in the last season? Many factors -- local and global -- have together pushed farmers to the brink here, notes Jaideep Hardikar , but says that lopsided global cotton trade is one major cause.

Five and a half years ago, a visit to nine Karnataka farmers who were trialing Bt cotton showed regulatory breakdown. Six years on, despite fresh criticism by NGOs, scientists and the media, India's regulatory practice with transgenic crops appears to have offered a repeat performance of its 2000 conduct, says Keya Acharya.

In what appears to be a desperate move to prop up agriculture growth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for reversing the declining trend in investment in agriculture. But his approach may also end up compounding the already existing crisis, writes Devinder Sharma.

The West Bengal government remains under a cloud due to violence over its industrialisation plans, but in other areas, its procurement and off-farm processing support for farmers has helped them far more than Maharashtra's approach to its own farmers. Jaideep Hardikar visited Burdman district.

Despite the high price of imported wheat, the government prefers this option to paying Indian farmers a higher support price for their crops. Bhaskar Goswami says that this amounts to a covert policy of dismantling the procurement and price support mechanisms.

The policy that reportedly favoured Indian consumers at the cost of farmers has come back to bite the consumers with a vengeance. And with the US and Europe embracing biofuels, things could get even worse, writes Kannan Kasturi.

The handling of sugar production, sale and external trade by the government shows a complete absence of strategic planning on an issue that critically affects the aam aadmi. Kannan Kasturi reports.

The current situation of impotence that the Government finds itself in should prompt some soul searching about the reliance on market mechanisms to take care of India's food security, writes Kannan Kasturi.

Barely three days after the conclusion of the last of six public hearings, Minister of Environment Jairam Ramesh slapped a moratorium on the release of Bt Brinjal. Anupama Rao summarises key points from the Minister's note.

Sick soils, declining yields, growing debts and rising malnutrition stalk the Punjab farmer, as the practices of the boom years catch up with him, writes Bhaskar Goswami.

The Mayawati government proposes to reduce the distance that farmers must travel to take their produce to market to an average of seven kms. This should help farming families boost their incomes, writes Devinder Sharma.

At the 101st Indian Science Congress in Jammu, the Prime Minister reaffirmed his faith in the potential of biotechnology for agricultural development. Devinder Sharma discusses findings that raise questions about the basis of his conviction.

The Internet has created democratic spaces where we can all blow-off steam and escape immediate physical violence. With faster and widening Internet access, blogging, where people create their own on-line diaries is gaining ground in India. The spirited, recent online backlash against eve-teasing is an example, says Kalpana Sharma.

With a multitude of problems and the diversity of languages, the medium of instruction remains a topic of impassioned debate. Teaching in the mother tongue fuels pride, but English is here to stay. Fostering multilingualism in our schools, however, is far from smooth sailing. Deepa A reports.

As Munnabhai has already tackled the callousness of our health system, and the greed of real estate sharks, how about tackling the one Indian tradition that refuses to die — that of dowry? I could imagine that such a film could work very well, says Kalpana Sharma.

The recent decisions of several state governments to ban sex education in all schools concern everyone, particularly women. In this age of the knowledge economy, we cannot believe that people's access to information on any subject, including matters relating to sex, can be controlled, says Kalpana Sharma.

The aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami saw an unprecedented outpouring of goodwill. But with the traditional panchayats in Nagapattinam's fishing hamlets controlling relief, single women and dalits were systematically exlcuded. Two and half years later, nothing has changed, reports S Gautham.

India's community conservation areas (CCAs) are nowhere near prosaic; they are instead heartening and remarkable pools of ecological and biodiversity rejuvenation in a country beset with environmental degradation in its bid to industrialise. Keya Acharya identifies the silver lining.

Contemporary trends in Indian society, business and statecraft are ultimately grounded in long standing intuitions about nature and culture that permeate Indian society. If public policy began from this understanding, very different notions of justice might emerge, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The differential treatment of people and communities is not just a matter of corruption or unfairness, but rather a deep seated psychological response in a historically diverse polity. Our challenge is to recognise this, and then move beyond it, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

A theatre festival was held in Kolkata between November 1 to November 4 dedicated to the memory of Nati Binodini (1863-1941), a versatile actress whose dramatic and tragic life had more twists and turns than a film script. Shoma Chatterji attended, and has more.

Contrary to popular understanding, the nationalist struggle recognised that swaraj was to extend beyond politics into the realm of ideas. And it is still a fine tool with which to understand the challenges we face in our continuing encounter with western ideas, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

As a young country with many technical problems, we need an army of Holmeses who can solve them. But the Macaulay-inspired education has always suited the Watsons, who cannot. Until this changes, there will be little hope of swaraj in ideas, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

Recent remarks by the Karnataka Chief Justice about immodest attire being partially responsible for increasing crimes against women harken back to a history that repeatedly stresses socially sanctioned control over women's choice of dress. Shoma Chatterji reports.

On 12 August 2008, history was made. A woman performed the duties of a 'qazi'. Today, a new 'nikahnama' has been placed before the 'ummah' (community), which protects the rights of the Muslim women, writes Syeda Hameed.

Any social scientist would give an arm and a leg to coin one new concept. M N Srinivas invented three such, with each resonating widely among the intellectual community, writes Ramachandra Guha

The Centre, mulling over the Delhi High Court verdict on Section 377 of the IPC, should recognise a basic principle of democratic freedoms - we are free when others are free. The India Together editorial.

The era of female impersonators is nearly finished, but in its heyday many men made a good living posing as women, and Chapal Bhaduri was among the best. Shoma Chatterji reports.

Our deities can't be bullied into becoming soulless robotic creatures that yield to every new wave of political fashion. Madhu Purnima Kishwar wants protection from the new missionaries of uniformity.

One would think that Hindi and Kannada music would never play in Chennai on radio, and Bangalore because of its unique history would surely have Tamil and Telugu songs on air. And Hyderabad must have one Hindi station. Wrong, finds Vaishnavi Vittal. The Great Indian South is one big surprise!

The army would like to point to low morale and push for higher pay. But as far as the troops are concerned, morale may have more to do with the way they are treated by officers, and this is what needs changing, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

Indian cinema has, of late, witnessed high-decibel debates over the desirability of dubbing Hindi films into regional languages. But does dubbing really pose a threat to vernacular cinema? Shoma Chatterji explores.

As parties firm up their candidates in various constituencies, several celebrity names - new and old - are doing the rounds yet again. Shoma Chatterji looks at a few examples from the years gone by to question what we may really expect from these star-turned-politicians.

The leading ladies of Bengali theatre in the late 19^th and 20^th centuries presented an intriguing portrait of women caught between two worlds, liberated in a way, yet shackled in others. A recent performance as tribute to these artists leads Shoma Chatterji to reminisce their lives and times.

Having drastically curtailed the width of eco-sensitive zones in Sikkim, the MoEF seems intent on ignoring local sentiment as well as environmental norms in order to push forward the Tashiding HEP on the sacred Rathong Chu river. Soumik Dutta reports on the latest in the case.

The age-old notions of patriarchy and masculinity, which suppress and disempower women, have an equally damaging effect on men’s behaviour and psyche, leaving them ill-equipped to handle failure. Rimjhim Jain reports.

Boregaon is a small village in Solapur district of Maharashtra where men have shunned the patriarchal mindset to support women’s political empowerment and gender equality, writes Suchismita Pai.

Naam Poribortito, the debut film of activist Mitali Biswas, reveals the dark and gory underbelly of West Bengal in particular, and the nation at large, where rape victims are denied justice and crusaders are silenced more often than not. Shoma Chatterji has more on the film and its portrayals.

An ancient matrilineal tribe of northeast India has a thriving culture and an increasing population, while a similarly ancient Dravidian matrilineal tribe is in danger of vanishing. Linda Chhakchhuak reports on what the Dravidian tribe can learn from the northeastern tribe to revive its culture and population.

Dr C S Lakshmi, the eminent Tamil feminist writer, who writes under the pen name Ambai, has been a researcher in women’s studies for the last several decades, and is also the Founder Trustee of Sound & Picture Archives for Research on Women (SPARROW), that has undertaken several oral history projects. She speaks to Pratibha Umashankar about issues concerning women.

More and more people are considering cycling as an option for their daily commutes to work. Women's participation in this change, however, is still low, and a lot of barriers need to be overcome, writes Sathya Sankaran.

Girish Karnad's clear-eyed, unsentimental and even self-deprecatory view of the city seems rare in the Indian narrative imagination, which continues to nurse the notion of ‘the village innocent’ vs ‘the city corrupt’.

An India Together radio program featuring Professor Jagdeep Chhokar of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad on the new anti-criminalization rules for India's elections.

This India Together radio program features a talk by well known women's rights lawyer Flavia Agnes. She speaks on the current critical juncture for women and the women's movement.

The entire weight of technical opinion has been to proceed with caution on the Interlinking of Rivers. An extract of Jairam Ramesh's speech in the Rajya Sabha debate on the working of Ministry of Water Resources on 20 April 2005.

The Government of India's draft community radio (CR) policy proposes to allow NGOs and other non-profit organisations to run low power radio stations with limited advertising. The policy is expected to go to the Cabinet for approval soon, but CR advocates and broadcasters are keeping their fingers crossed, notes Surekha Sule.

The disaster in Uttarakhand cannot be viewed as a result of isolated factors such as faulty governance or flawed environmental policy. It calls for a more holistic and deeper look at the entire range of issues that are endemic to the mountain region, writes R. Uma Maheshwari

Financial irregularities, a probable political conflict of interest and unsavoury social impact have thrown a cloud over the potential of Sikkim’s casino industry, once envisioned to attract revenues for the state from gaming tourism. Soumik Dutta reports.

Most Indian languages do not have a specific word for the female traveller. The traveller is by definition male, a fact that provokes Namrata R Ganneri to delve deeper into the gendered nuances of travel and its implications for women.

The framework for assessing the environmental impact of new projects has in the past served to merely facilitate projects getting started. It was hoped that revisions proposed recently would change that, but there is little evidence of a new course, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.