Any election campaign and process needs money, and as long as the exercise of money power is well-regulated, it can never thwart the power of the people, feels P V Rajeev.

M Karunanidhi, who is keen on ensuring that all his children are well settled before he passes into the ages, needs to learn from President Kalam's example.

'If a scheme like the NREGA can yield such handsome dividends, imagine the likely impact of an initiative to provide universal healthcare, free primary education, safe drinking water, affordable housing and social security.'

Invincible as he appears in his western stronghold, can Narendra Modi sweep forth from it and take New Delhi for an insurgent BJP? The good news for Modi's rivals in his party is that these results don't even begin to suggest he can.

Instead of a steamrolling 150 seats tally, terrifying the Bharatiya Janata Party high command into an abject surrender and hailing him as a prime minister-in-waiting, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra got 115 seats, 2 short of his 2007 score(117), enabling his party rivals to deny him what he covets the most, says Arvind J Bosmia

India's energy set-up requires a major overhaul in order to keep up with the growth imperative, but there may be no quick-fix solutions. Ashok Sreenivas and Sreekumar N outline the critical areas of concern that call for focused solutions beyond the ambit of private investment.

Has the CAG overstepped its mandate by auditing the capital’s three power distributors at the behest of the ruling Delhi government? While the recent High Court ruling seems to indicate that, Himanshu Upadhyaya argues why the draft audit report must not be rejected.

Public attention must focus on what Pakistan's options are, both in battlefield tactical terms, and in the face of India's military resurgence, says Firdaus Ahmed.

The challenge before the media is to move beyond clubbing what happens to women with routine crime briefs, on the one hand, and sensational stories, on the other, to cover "the greatest human rights scandal of our times". Ammu Joseph looks at media coverage of violence against women.

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.

Disaster situations in the recent past have only led to sporadic study and discussions but yielded little by way of lessons for the long term; will the devastating North Indian floods this time change that? Kanchi Kohli ruminates.

Inadequate training, shortfall in personnel, weak monitoring systems and unconvincing responses from the government to the CAG.s objections regarding the same reveal the flaws in implementation of the NREGS scheme in Uttar Pradesh. Himanshu Upadhyaya reports.

The success of ‘spot fixes’ and other initiatives by independent resident-collectives or organisations in cleaning up urban spaces and dumping spots has been noteworthy, but a long-term plan for solving waste issues in Indian cities needs more. Pooja Ramamurthi explains.

The uneven performance of MGNREGA in the task of rural asset generation requires a careful comparison of the decision making processes involved in those cases where the works undertaken have produced value and where it has failed to, writes Pavan Kulkarni.

Despite abundant evidence that the PDS has failed to ward off starvation, the Centre proposes a new plan that shows none of the wisdom of this experience. Kanchi Kohli reports on an alternative grounded in local production, storage and distribution, which does a much better job of fighting hunger.

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 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.

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.

An audit of construction contracts handled by the Rajasthan irrigation department finds that expenditure often exceeds budgets and bypasses rules. Himanshu Upadhyaya reports.

The recent verdict of the Gujarat High Court regarding the operation of multipurpose industries on land leased out by the MPSEZ could have critical implications for environmental clearance of SEZs in general. Kanchi Kohli reports.

The erstwhile UPA government’s Food Security Act, now set to be implemented by the present government, could mean unendurable strain for the country’s public distribution framework. P V Rajeev spells out better alternatives to explore.

A petition filed by an NGO before the NGT seeks a phasing out of the use of plastic bottles and multi-layered plastic packaging, but there is a strong opposition to the proposal from a significant section of stakeholders belonging to the industry. Devanik Saha reports.

Both India and Pakistan have independently concluded that they would be able to extract better concessions from the other at a later date, notes Firdaus Ahmed.

Should bureaucrats working in the national security bureaucracy have a working knowledge of the defence sector, or would that just foster group-think? Firdaus Ahmed explores the question.

For the last 15 years, India has been unable to deal with a fasting, frail poet! Anjuman Ara Begum writes  how Irom Sharmila has been waging a protest against the cruel Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, enforced in her home state of Manipur and other parts of northeast India.

Mindless disruption of human settlements in the name of wildlife protection, and the corresponding restrictions on the rights of people living within forests destroys the very wildlife for which it is being done. The story of the Asiatic lions of Gir bears witness to this, writes Nandini K Oza.

The tribal is invariably the crucial link in the poacher’s grisly chain in Indian forests. Their alienation has directly placed India’s precious wildlife and biodiversity under threat. Malini Shankar has more.

By having elections at a time when people are forced to migrate in search of work, we are simply excluding an ever-growing number of citizens from the vote, says P Sainath.

Vidarbha's farmers are unhappy with the "relief packages" announced by the State and the Centre. Debt relief and access to credit are certainly important to them, but they want the larger issues driving the suicides addressed first, writes P Sainath.

The announcement of fresh crop loans came late in the sowing season for Vidarbha. And, say the suicide notes of farmers, the talk at the top has not been matched by credit at the bottom. Meanwhile, the rain is adding to the devastation, writes P Sainath.

After 15 years of a battering from hostile policies and governments, the world of the peasant has turned highly fragile. But the onus of changing is on the farmer. Not on those driving a cruel process and system, who have only contempt for ordinary folk, writes P Sainath.

Even as the suicides in Vidharbha go on relentlessly, a trend has strengthened these past months. More and more farmers are blaming the Government and even talking directly in their suicide notes to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, writes P Sainath.

In society's eyes, Kamlabai is a `widow.' In her own, she's a small farmer trying to make a living and support her family. She is also one of about one lakh women across the country who've lost their husbands to farm suicides since the 1990s, writes P Sainath.

Gross inequality does far more than breed resentment. It destroys millions of lives, devastates the access of the poor to basic needs, dehumanises both its victims and its votaries, and undermines democracy itself, writes P Sainath.

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.

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

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

Allegations have been made repeatedly that the penal code's protection against matrimonial cruelty is often abused by women. But no evidence is given to support this claim, says Bikram Jeet Batra.

Legislation to regulate and administer the country's water sector is a crying need, but the Draft National Water Framework Law recently submitted by the Alagh Committee is a disappointment. Shripad Dharmadhikary explains why.

As Parliament debates the amended land acquisition and mining laws, Himanshu Upadhyaya draws attention to the report of an audit of Odisha’s resettlement and rehabilitation policy that clearly highlights the threats to displaced communities.

In the shrill discourse over freedom of speech, the selective publication, and even overt suppression, of actionable development data is often overlooked. Amid calls for a next-gen data revolution, Biraj Swain highlights this and other challenges that lie in its path.

The distinction between making government work, and making government change, is an important one, and groups following the two approaches need not be at odds, says Subramaniam Vincent

The government continues to defy the Supreme Court's orders on establishing more free and better regulated broadcasting. At the same time, its sky-high license fees have driven profit out of the industry. Subramaniam Vincent notes the knots the Broadcasting Ministry has tied itself into.

As India votes in the midst of a rising campaign crescendo that pits one individual against the other, Subramaniam Vincent urges the electorate to prioritise a 'better parliament.'

Ration shopkeepers won't divulge their records, Food Department officials wont file complaints, and the police wont act on their own or accept complaints from the public. But the cycle of corruption can still be broken.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Timarpur Waste Management Company Pvt. Ltd., have proposed a waste incineration plant to treat the city's solid waste and generate 6 MW of electricity. TWMPCL has applied to a United Nations body for tradable carbon credits. Gopal Krishna finds much wrong in the proposal.