The rural employment guarantee programme is life-saving. This time round, the poor have slightly more money than they did earlier. But all prices are up. P Sainath reports.

The broad trends of the past decade seem unshaken. Farmer suicides in the country since 1997 now total 182,936, but the real causes behind this devastation remain unaddressed, reports P Sainath.

Through January the US has seen the loss of 17,000 jobs every day since the meltdown began in September. Here in India, too, things are slipping but the lessons remain unlearnt, writes P Sainath.

What does it mean to rank much better on GDP per capita than in the HDI, as we do? It means we have been less successful in converting income into human development, writes P Sainath.

If you are worth Rs.50 million or more, you are 75 times more likely to win an election to the Lok Sabha than if you are worth under Rs.1 million. P Sainath does a different kind of electoral math.

Ask for expansion of the NREGS, universal access to the PDS, more spending on health and education - and there's no money. But there?s enough to give away to the corporate world in concessions, writes P Sainath.

Growing numbers of elected representatives fund their poll campaigns with corporate backing. And growing numbers of people with a big business background have ventured directly into the electoral arena, writes P Sainath.

The share of the 'suicide belt' - Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh - remains very high; these states account for two-thirds of the total farm suicides in the country. P Sainath reports.

In 2006-08, Maharashtra saw 12, 493 farm suicides. That is 85 per cent higher than the 6,745 suicides it recorded during 1997-1999. And the worst three-year period for any State, any time. P Sainath reports.

Maybe the pro-farmer claim was a typing error. This is a budget crafted for, and perhaps by, the corporate farmer and agribusiness, writes P Sainath.

Freebies for the IPL - at a time of savage food subsidy cuts for the poor - benefit four men who make the Forbes Billionaire List of 2010 and a few other, mere multi-millionaires, notes P Sainath.

Two years of drought has started to take its toll on the people of Vidarbha, with a failed crop leaving them with no income to tide over the crisis, writes P Sainath.

The official line is simple. Since we cannot afford to feed all the hungry, there must only be as many hungry as we can afford to feed. The truth is the government seeks ways to spend less and less on the very food security it talks about, writes P Sainath.

The original report on 'paid news' of the Press Council of India sub-committee is relegated to the archive. Then too, it does not even appear on the PCI's website, writes P Sainath.

The NREGS is restricted to a 100 days a year. The PDS is targeted to exclude 'APL' families. Only exploitation is universal, writes P Sainath.

There is indeed a vital link between paid news and private treaties. One is in the political sphere. And, second, in the sphere of business and commerce, writes P Sainath.

The Commonwealth Games were no showcase, but a mirror of India 2010. If they presented anything, it was Indian crony, casino capitalism at its most vigorous, writes P Sainath.

India has lost nearly a half-trillion dollars in illegal financial flows out of the country, says a new study by Global Financial Integrity. P Sainath reports.

The Delhi High Court's dismissal of Ashok Chavan's petition and the CIC's orders to the Press Council to make its report on 'paid news' public promise many blushes for Big Media and platinum-tier politicians, writes P Sainath.

Five States did manage a significant decline in the average number of farm suicides between 2003 and 2010. However, more States have reported increases over the same period, reports P Sainath.

The government’s counter-affidavit in a recent suit could strip the ECI of its power to disqualify candidates for fraudulent accounts or put an end to the pandemic of paid news. P Sainath reports on civil society attempts to stop the subversion of the EC’s powers.

Without the right kind of thinking, relief for victims of disasters may actually hurt more than help says Dilip D'Souza.

Dilip D'Souza comments on the climate for investigative reporting and public expectations of it.

India has changed greatly in the last two or three decades, but maybe we can still choose not to run each other out. Dilip D'Souza narrates a story from another time.

A better tomorrow must be for us all, not just for the middle and upper classes. This has little to do with morality, altruism or idealism, but much more to do with realism says Dilip D'Souza.

The slaughter of daughters in India may not continue forever; just by virtue of being scarce, girls will be desired again says Dilip D'Souza.

The more crooked a leader, the more he trumpets his own patriotism, the more he pronounces who else is patriotic, says Dilip D'Souza.

Left to “take its own course”, the law invariably manages to meander into a dead end. Time to make it chart a more meaningful course, says Dilip D’Souza.

The "Genuine Progress Indicator" or GPI is a better balance sheet of the costs and benefits of grow than the GDP, says Dilip D'Souza.

Accessible public libraries bring strength to democracy, says Dilip D'Souza.

Often, the deaths of our military officers raise questions. The answers? That's the hard part, says Dilip D'Souza.

The Kumbakonam and Ervadi tragedies may not have happened if our nation building process had taken a different turn decades ago. Dilip D'Souza on a patriotism that stems from concern for everyone.

Asia's largest shipbreaking yard has a regular supply of cheap labour as well as suspect environmental and safety conditions. Dilip D'Souza on the conditions we tolerate.

Dilip D'Souza contrasts the unquestioned annual increases in the defence budget with the real challenges of security faced by civilians.

In Samiyarpettai, sub-collector Rajendra Ratnoo had put together a disaster management plan as a test case just two months ago. When the tsunami came last December 26, Ratnoo's plan worked spectacularly. Over one hundred survived because of Ratnoo's plan. That was an achievement, says Dilip D'Souza.

The world moves to the tunes of two kinds of men: the great kind and the evil kind. The rest of us are somewhere in between. But what heroes and Neros both get us zeros to do is ask questions, says Dilip D'Souza.

Was the salt march an essentially libertarian stand against taxes and government, was it about non-violence, or simply an assault on British rule via its weakest link? The more I reflect on Gandhi, the more I think that his enduring legacy is that you can find your own message in him, says Dilip D'Souza.

Eight months since the December 2004 tsunami, Dilip D'Souza returned to Nagore near Nagapattinam, Tamilnadu, to find that plenty of boats donated by NGOs were poorly built. As 'relief', many fishermen received boats that leak and one boat reportedly split under their feet on its first trip out to sea.

Tsunami relief in Tamilnadu may have taken on an altogether unexpected colour. Some villages escaped the giant tides, and yet in Shanmuganagar, villagers destroyed their homes, when the tsunami itself did not. Why? "We were scared, and they promised us a new house," finds Dilip D'Souza .

It's bad enough that you can pay bribes to officials who are very willing to take them; bad enough that ill-gotten gains are nearly a birthright today; bad enough that values are to laugh at. But corruption is about more than these. Corruption breaks down the very rules we live by. Dilip D'Souza remembers his court appearances.

What's the difference between hearing a case, and merely setting a date for hearing it? Dilip D'Souza isn't quite sure, after yet another day spent answering a court summons. Justice, he learns first-hand, is riding on a prayer, and is often at least one more hearing away.

The tsunami is not forgotten, but in Keechankuppam the fishermen have weighed the risk of another tsunami against the prospects for finding safer housing further inland. And so their huts are back again on the once-ravaged beach, as though the tsunami never happened, writes Dilip D'Souza.

The mob came from three different directions. Each group was preoccupied with its own murder. Bhayyalal's wife and daughter had their skulls smashed in, and his boys were beaten to death with sticks. Dilip D'Souza listens to the 'background' of yet another caste murder.

Is it enough for me to go travelling to various parts of this country and write about my experiences? Does it really help those I write about, in any meaningful way? Dilip D'Souza writes about the gnawing question.

As a believer in the promise of democracy first and above all, I long for the checks and balances of competing ideologies. Yet for too long in this country, we heard only, or largely, the voice of the left, and the right that did emerge eventually was itself flawed, writes Dilip D'Souza.

Governments have been changing the rules of the RTI Act, trying all sorts of things to dilute its provisions. Most of these are done without consulting the public. Navya P K reports.

A recent court ruling allows RTI applicants to seek information without divulging their address, by simply citing a post box number. While this may partially stem the spate of attacks on activists, a lot more is needed to effectively shield whistle blowers, finds Navya P K.

The oppression of the Dalit community, and especially its women, by upper caste society is still widely prevalent in Rasulpura village of Rajasthan’s Ajmer district. Shirish Khare visits the village to find that the agents of law are often equally discriminatory.

The efforts of metals major Hindalco to mine bauxite from Mali Parbat in Odisha has run up against stiff resistance from local Kondh adivasis, who wouldn’t shy away from militancy to protect their ecology, if needed. Javed Iqbal explores why they reject ‘industrial development’.

Close to 5500 hectares of land in six states, acquired for 52 SEZs, were subsequently de-notified and diverted for commercial purposes! Himanshu Upadhyaya draws attention to this and other findings in the CAG audit of SEZs, which leave several questions unanswered.