Panchayats of Madhya Pradesh provide reservation of up to 50 per cent for women, but the participation of women in governance has gone beyond such new roles. Shirish Khare reports on how women leaders are transforming the very traditions and symbols of grassroots politics.

This Delhi non-profit's initial success in effective enforcement of Delhi’s Right to Information Act has woken up the establishment just as much as it has informed citizens, reports Varupi Jain.

Compared to other bus corridors world-wide, the Delhi effort is a very limited one. The current design is only a busway, and the government must push forward to build a full-fledged Bus Rapid Transit system, say Dario Hidalgo and Madhav Pai.

While stonewalling their demand to broadcast news, the I&B Ministry has said CR stations can air AIR bulletins instead. Geeta Seshu reports.

Less than 100 days of work and chronic delays in payment - in continuing focus on NREGS implementation across states, Himanshu Upadhyaya summarises the findings of a recent performance review by the CAG of the scheme in Jharkhand.

In one of development's pampered districts in Orissa, chamar children are still polishing shoes, some even as they are supposedly schooling. Special economic packages are helping only a little here, and academic performance and serious rehabilitation remain abysmal, finds Ranjan K Panda.

The Supreme Court acknowledges the indictment of Vedanta's operations in India by the Norwegian Council on Ethics, but its recent verdict appears to let the company off lightly, treating the Indian subsidiary as unrelated to its parent. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Despite many shortcomings in implementation, an array of examples and a government willing to move on public pressure are showing that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is making progress in Orissa. Pradeep Baisakh reports.

In Harud, autumn is not just the season it stands for. It is a metaphor for a state caught in a situation of persistent siege, bomb blasts, and killings. Shoma Chatterji reviews the film.

Ban on entry of women into places of worship comes out of deep-seated religious and cultural prejudices. However, a recent development in Western Assam's Barpeta district offers a ray of hope to those in search of justice, reports Teresa Rehman.

Venu Govindu reviews Siddharth Dube's Words Like Freedom : Memoirs of an Impoverished Indian Family 1947-1997

The Supreme Court and the overwhelming majority of academics and NGOs believe in it. A growing number of poor parents have emerged as a pressure group for this programme, report Kalpana Parikh & Summiya Yasmeen.

A new volume that outlines in detail the climate change issues, impact and adaptation strategies in Sikkim could also provide replicable models for other states, particularly in the Himalayan region. Seema Bhatt reviews the publication.

Prem Kumar travels across the country, finding disabled children living in isolation and despair, carrying nature's cruel dispensation. But he is heartened as well by inspiring work that so many organisations carry out, and hopes that a brighter future awaits the children, thanks to their efforts.

Stressful apprenticeship in a system that is not geared to meet the medical needs of the majority makes junior doctors very different from the counterparts in other professions. Their strikes over questions of merit and reservation should not divert attention from this more important issue, says Abhijit Das.

The Goan government wants to make HIV testing mandatory for marrying couples. But mandatory testing will drive some people, who are already sceptical about the health care system, further away from it. It is also unlikely to cause the changes in behaviour necessary to prevent the spread of HIV, writes Neerja Vaidya-Yadav.

Even as New Delhi says maternal mortality numbers are falling, tribal women in Madhya Pradesh are facing a negligent, cruel and corrupt healthcare system and dying during childbirth. When the conduct of hospital staff is questioned, they face retaliation instead of accountability. Sachin Jain reports.

India has ratified the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but done very little to protect the rights of the disabled in accordance with it. Freny Manecksha reports.

Mental illness is an isolating experience which shuts off those affected from experiencing the fun and laughter of everyday life. Kolkata Sanved is working to change that, writes Shoma Chatterji.

Mental illness is an isolating experience which shuts off those affected from experiencing the fun and laughter of everyday life. Kolkata Sanved is working to change that, writes Shoma Chatterji.

With a recent drug sample report confirming the presence of rat poison in medicines administered to Chhattisgarh’s hapless tubectomy victims, it is yet another wake-up call for India to address the threats posed by its $4.25-billion fake drugs market. Tanvi Bhatikar bares some stark facts.

Institutionalised delivery is encouraged as a means of reducing maternal/infant mortality, but the misbehaviour meted to pregnant women in government hospitals deters them from seeking such care. Ruhi Kandhari reports.

The Railway Budget this year has been hailed for its pragmatic approach and emphasis on modernisation and customer experience. Tanvi Bhatikar raises a critical issue that needs to be addressed in order to deliver on those fronts.

The Government of Karnataka's Working Group on Decentralization discusses institutions for upward accountability in Panchayati Raj. The second in a series of articles adapted from the Working Group's 2002 report.

The Government of Karnataka's Working Group on Decentralization discusses mechanisms for democratizing decision making in Panchayats. This is the third in a series of articles adapted from the Working Group's 2002 report.

A recent Supreme Court order has said that the Government shall build a second runway only in full compliance the law.

An update from Bangalore's PROOF (Public Records of Operations and Finance) campaign.

Rasika Dhavse profiles the Bala and Yuva Janaagraha campaigns at Bangalore.

India Together

True, Bangalore must be able to handle more flights, passengers and air freight to meet current demand and future growth. But London’s Heathrow airport sits on 1000 acres less land, and yet flies 14 times more passengers than Bangalore's new airport will. What's going on? Jacob John investigates.

The proposed Hubli-Ankola railway line in Karnataka originally stirred up criticism because if built, it would pass through the ecologically fragile Western Ghats forests. Matters recently came to a head when evidence emerged of the Railways proceeding to construct a part of the line without forest clearance. Kanchi Kohli has more.

A hurriedly passed amendment to the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act last week gives MLAs unwarranted powers over panchayats, which are themselves a separate tier of local goverment. Nandana Reddy and Damodar Acharya say the amendment is contrary to the spirit of decentralisation and the Constitution.

The Karnataka state legislature's amendment to the Panchayati Raj law has already attracted severe criticism from civil society. The governor had also expressed his objections. There is now an outpouring of wrath from women panchayat members around the state as protests intensify. Kathyayini Chamaraj reports.

A long history of questionable practices in the mining industry catches up with its practitioners, landing the whole affair in the Supreme Court. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Even as Justice Santosh Hegde credibly exposed the Karnataka government for its many scams, senior state politicans and Bangalore's academics worry that nothing will eventually come of it. Sriram Vittalamurthy reports from an October meeting in the city.

There are two spheres of politics being played out in India at present. One is patronage, and the second, aspirational. During the just concluded Karnataka assembly elections, both were seen. More and more people are waking up to the aspirational one, writes Subramaniam Vincent

As Gram Panchayats in Karnataka go to the polls this year, Madhavi Rajadhyaksha explores the untapped potential of these grassroots institutions and suggests ways in which their capabilities may be leveraged and capacity strengthened.

A multimedia curriculum developed by a Mumbai non-profit aims to have students critically explore the relationships between women, beauty and advertising. Geeta Seshu reports.

Cautiously, but with conviction, some farmers are switching to organic farming, and bidding goodbye to the pesticide-driven harvests of the Green Revolution. Ramesh Menon reports.

Much debate over the massive dam projects on the Narmada has been on costs vs benefits as well as poor rehabilitation measures. But one of the original questions activists raised years ago was over the Right to Information. The 'RTI' factor may be finally hitting home, reports Jaideep Hardikar.

Municipalities are outsourcing city waste collection to private contractors. As a result, rag-pickers face a loss of their livelihood, unless the informal sector itself is institutionalised within the hierarchy of solid waste management. Surekha Sule reports.

In Yavatmal district alone, there's been an eight-fold increase in farmers' suicides in just four years. Yet, thanks to a flawed counting process, even that is a huge under-estimate. P Sainath continues his series on the agrarian crisis in Vidharbha.

What does it say about our priorities when a rescue team trying to get help to victims of a landslide has to destroy other homes to reach them? Citizens might be resilient during natural disasters, but this isn't spirit; to find that we have to look elsewhere, and at other times, says Dilip D'Souza.

Chandrakant Pathak has invented power-generation gadgets tailored especially for rural energy needs. As Pathak's gadgets are gaining popularity in rural areas of Pune district and several neighbouring districts in Maharashtra, state energy development agencies are taking note, reports Aparna Pallavi.

In London, Singapore and Shanghai, high one-time car taxes and congestion fees have been used to regulate traffic load. In Mumbai though, despite the congestion and pollution caused by private motorised transport, road taxes and parking fees remain very low. Darryl D'Monte reports.

The idea of world class highways in India, runway smooth, takes some getting used to. There is the Golden Quadrilateral from Delhi to Mumbai, and then there are the 70 kms of rubble between Disa in Gujarat and Sanchor in Rajasthan. Dilip D'Souza drives into the New Year weekend.

Hundreds of women in Maharashtra's Gondia district travel from small towns to the villages to earn a daily wage. Unlike most migrants, they are footloose workers from an urban setting seeking work in the villages. At stations along the way are labour contractors, waiting to pick up workers on the cheap. P Sainath reports.

In India's business capital, the NGO Sanmitra is helping HIV positive women re-enter the mainstream workforce, thereby ensuring them a life of independence and dignity. Sumita Thapar has more.

Across India, cotton growers make up the largest group of the over 180,000 farmers who committed suicide between 1997 and 2007. There's nothing like an election to spur policy change, though, notes P Sainath.

Once an offence is disclosed under the Prevention of Corruption Act, then the police must investigate, rules the court, and any government circular that interferes with this must be ignored. Krishnaraj Rao reports.