If issues concerning media standards and ethics are not swept under the carpet as in the past, some good may result from the recent storm over Justice Katju’s observations, writes Ammu Joseph.

As Uttarakhand reels in the aftermath of devastating floods, Ammu Joseph underlines the need for greater awareness of the gender dimensions of such calamities and recognition of the special and diverse needs of women and other disadvantaged sections of society.

If 34 per cent of current parliamentarians have family ties and all those under 30 years are hereditary MPs, the concern over women alone leveraging family connections in politics seems misplaced. As the Women's Reservation Bill awaits yet another round of consideration, Ammu Joseph wonders if women politicians can and do make a difference.

The pressure of ill-informed popular sentiment coupled with a retributive judicial system may lead to an award of capital punishment for rapists, as it has in the Delhi 2012 case, but that does very little to address the much larger problem of VAW in all its dimensions. Ammu Joseph explains.

The pressure of ill-informed popular sentiment coupled with a retributive judicial system may lead to an award of capital punishment for rapists, as it has in the Delhi 2012 case, but that does very little to address the much larger problem of VAW in all its dimensions. Ammu Joseph explains.

On World Radio Day, Ammu Joseph looks at the representation of women in Indian radio and wonders if the medium can play a more significant role in ensuring empowerment and equal participation.

Limited, quick-fix solutions that do not address the underlying causes of the deep-rooted problem of rape have clearly not worked in the country, writes Ammu Joseph in the first of a two-part article examining the many layers of the issue.

Indifference, impatience, aggression and denial have been among the common responses to rape as a multi-layered problem. In the concluding part of her article, Ammu Joseph draws attention to all that fosters a culture of violence against women in our society and why it is unamenable to hasty remedies.

For a class of people thirsting for recognition in the modern world, the rosy narrative of business is far more seductive than anything else our culture has to offer. Rajesh Kasturirangan says business meets an essential need of middle class Indian culture.

Violence in India has followed this macro-to-micro trajectory of Indian modernity. As different forces have shaped modernity, we have shifted from large-scale acts of violence cutting across national boundaries, to state-level violence, to village level violence, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

We need to reflect on the political and social possibilities that India has contributed to the modern world. The Indian experience offers new interpretations of key modern concepts such as nationhood, democracy, citizenship and individual freedom, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

In India, as in no other large country in the world, the nation still has the potential to reign in the hegemony of the nation-state. If this happens, some of the worst forms of violence will be curtailed, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

There is a dichotomy between the normative, rational principles enshrined in the law and the actual practice of public morality. We can overcome this only if we co-locate physically and mentally with fellow citizens, says Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The fundamental reason for the lack of a substantive debate on important issues is that we, the public as well as the representatives, simply do now know what the real issues are. We have to fix that deficit in our democracy, says Rajesh Kasturirangan.

With the law of small numbers threatening to take over, we need a public discussion of the good life, a search for truth done by individuals in association with others, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

Just as democracy prevents famines without addressing everyday food scarcity, does it prevent horrendous violence while accepting and even abetting smaller acts of violence, wonders Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The Mumbai attacks are a direct threat against the existence of the Indian state. Still, we should distance ourselves from votaries of direct action, including war against Pakistan, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

Not only is the division between an outer world of 'things out there' and an inner world of 'thoughts and feelings' a false distinction rooted in a particular historical trajectory, it is also pernicious, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

Ritual culture is fundamentally incompatible with modern city life, but an alternative based on an implicit social contract has yet to emerge in India, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

New forms of power and influence are emerging in the 21st century, with opportunities no longer controlled by the west. So why are we harking to outmoded forms of power, asks Rajesh Kasturirangan.

In the past few hundred years, every revolution has caused much more harm than the evil it sought to eradicate. Perhaps the conservative is on to something after all, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The images of developmental utopia cluster together in our head into a kind of heaven, a secular afterlife of instantly met desires. Rajesh Kasturirangan explores the narrative of development.

The continuous repetition of 1984 style violence also says something very unflattering about the man on the street, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The pattern of development in India seems ominously like England in the nineteenth century. Are Indian companies the vanguard of a 21st century Indian imperialism, ask Rajesh Kasturirangan.

A land in which every kind of oppression has a long history is a country in which wounds are deep and forgiveness difficult. Moral indignation comes too easily to us, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

What happens once our self-understanding of India has been permanently transformed by the collective belief that India is a person? Some consequences are obvious; others are subtler, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The reasons for the decline of Indian academia are more complex than just the influence of IT, however significant that might be, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

We should profitably contrast the flexible chaos of our institutions with the iron order of the west. The management of diversity requires a sensible mix of order and chaos, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The decline of politics and of intellectual discourse is related to the struggle between politics and economics as the arbiter of the moral commons and the role of the developmental state in this fight, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

Our notions of collateral damage have done enormous harm to the ecological balance which sustains life on this planet. A new politics is needed to recover from this, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

We need a new mechanism for creating trust, a mechanism that is neither traditional nor institutional. Post-institutional technology holds more hope than rule-based institutions, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The unstated policy of murdering unwanted elements is wrong at every possible level, and it leads to a crisis of legitimacy of the state, while claiming to be a patriotic act, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The problem of Indian politics is not that it exists, but rather that success in the system doesn't seem to be connected in any way to the ability to govern, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

Is it at all possible to be an Indian nationalist without losing sight of our common humanity? Can nationalism ever be an emancipatory principle, asks Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The nation is still the best mediator of the sphere of thought and the sphere of action. Even in a changing world, we cannot wish away the Indian nation and replace it with a world government overnight, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

Instead of imposing top-down controls on behaviour from the Supreme Court downward, would a better solution to our problems be to shift norms from the family outward, asks Rajesh Kasturirangan.

Corruption is much broader than what we usually imagine it to be, which focuses on bribes and similar illegal monetary transactions. A number of other practices are corrupt, even if they are legal, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

A nuclear disaster is such a complex event with wide consequences that it would be better to stop ourselves from going down a path that might lead to a catastrophe, however unlikely it may be, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

A number of barbs have been flung at Anna Hazare and the India Against Corruption campaign, amidst the rising popularity of the effort. Are these justified, wonders Rajesh Kasturirangan.

After scathing comments from two consecutive CAG reports, the Gujarat government faces mounting questions related to systematic pilferage of earthquake reconstruction funds, reports Himanshu Upadhyaya.

"There is a strong question mark about the possibility of ... providing potable drinking water to all villages by 2004”, warned the Comptroller and Auditor General in 2002. Himanshu Upadhyaya on how the CAG foretold correctly.

The Planning Commission is urging higher Central funding of large irrigation projects, but the Finance Minister promised more decentralised water management. What's going on? Meanwhile, Himanshu Upadhyaya thumbs through a CAG report and finds that these projects don't lack money - what they really need is accountability.

Total plan funding for urban areas is Rs 3,500 crores, but for rural programmes, it exceeds Rs 40,000 crores. In the meantime, the urban poor often live in sub-human conditions, and the infrastructure is barely able to cope. Ramesh Ramanathan says we need more rigour in our policy discourse.

By framing the debate as one of protecting the 'autonomy' of PSUs from 'microcontrol by government', some pink papers are trying to confuse readers into thinking that CAG audit is a governmental intervention, which it is not. The CAG's role is constitutionally enshrined for ensuring accountability of PSUs, writes Himanshu Upadhyaya.

Political parties have displayed moral outrage over the recent expose of misuse in MPLADS funds. The scheme itself violates the Constitution, and second, MPs have had a free hand in doling out contracts to build and sustain patronage. The decision to retain the scheme is shortsighted, points out Sudhirendar Sharma.

Political parties have displayed moral outrage over the recent expose of misuse in MPLADS funds. The scheme itself violates the Constitution, and second, MPs have had a free hand in doling out contracts to build and sustain patronage. The decision to retain the scheme is shortsighted, points out Sudhirendar Sharma.

Siltation studies of 27 dam-created reservoirs spanning the nation, obtained using the RTI law indicate that all is not well. Storage capacities of the reservoirs have been dropping and the loss is alarming; what's worse, little is being to done to stop the wastage, find Himanshu Thakkar & Swarup Bhattacharyya.

Last year, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) brought the performance of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme under the scanner. The report, which was placed in Parliament in August 2006, uncovered a top-heavy programme with local leaks and a flawed implementation. Himanshu Upadhyaya has more.

When a large hydropower projects results in the conversion of forest land, or its submergence, what is the right amount of money to be paid as compensation for this ecological loss? Himanshu Upadhyaya finds that developers are seeking creative arguments to lower the costs to themselves.

The government's understanding of an 'inclusive' Budget is simply that it ought to be the provider of welfare for the lower income groups. The evidence so far suggests that this is an attempt doomed from the start, since the government is not very good at administering such programmes. Ashwin Mahesh says that there are better options.