The heavy rains of the south-west monsoon are a few weeks away and malaria usually follows, in Assam. The state has 20 per cent of malaria deaths in India, but this time, doctors say they have taken substantive measures. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports.

The villages of Khanpur Kholiya, Masana and Sawla in Haryana have received the central government's Nirmal Gram Puruskar for ensuring that no one, not even a child, defecates in the open. Darryl D'Monte reports.

A clear focus on protecting the interests of non-smokers has led to worldwide efforts to ban smoking in all public places, and strongly curtail any exceptions. India too has joined this trend, writes Ramesh Menon.

The U.S. auto giants are an example of how things work in the age of unbridled corporate power. Of how the collapse of restraint on that power fractures economy and society, writes P Sainath.

A family planning programme in Assam uses texts from the Holy Quran, encouraging husbands to accept sterilisation to promote the health and well-bring of their family. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports.

It is frightening to think of how the new drug resistant strain of tuberculosis is going to spread in crowded, unhygienic, urban India. Doctors are worried. Ramesh Menon reports.

The better education and health outcome indicators in the southern states compared to the north, has been acknowledged for a long time. And yet to see it with one’s own eyes really drives home the poin,t say Reetika Khera.

In the concluding part of her series, Malini Shankar looks beyond the needs of the physically challenged and emphasises the criticality of appropriate facilities and infrastructure that would make train journeys convenient for those travelling for medical reasons.

The recent decision of the Kerala government to phase out sale of liquor and become a dry state has renewed the debate on prohibition as an effective deterrent. Pushpa Achanta examines trends in alcoholism and de-addiction to show why it may be all for nothing.

It has been widely established that the health impact of indoor air pollution, caused often by solid fuels for household cooking, far outweighs the hazards of outdoor pollution. Arpana HS quotes data from the Census and findings from a recent paper to show why India needs to tackle this on priority.

Unnecessary tests, forced hospitalisations to meet the targets set for employed physicians, and the infamous but real ‘sink test’: the shocking realities in the private healthcare sector are many, as Pavan Kulkarni finds out at a panel discussion on the issue. Is more regulation the need of the hour?

Handing out non-biodegradable sanitary pads to rural school girls who have reached menarche will not address their menstrual hygiene issue. Clean and functional toilets with water supply, awareness about menstruation, economical and biodegradable pads and more is needed, finds Puja Awasthi.

Led by children themselves, and ably assisted by concerned adult guidance, a remarkable Children's Council gives true meaning to citizenship and informed choices.

Kathyayini Chamaraj looks at a civil society partnership that is catalysing a government urban poverty alleviation programme.

T R Raghunandan is a hard hitting IAS officer managing Rural Development at the Government of Karnataka. In this interview to India Together, he talks about decentralization reforms and the challenges of winding down prevailing hierarchies in government.

With more citizens taking interest, Bangalore's Janaagraha campaign is expanding to neighboring municipal areas.

N G Hegde on a Karnataka water project that is more than an innovation making water and irrigation a reality in a drought-prone area.

A proposal for the last dam on Karnataka's Kali river has been abandoned, says the state's Industries Minister R.V.Deshpande. The state's apex environmental regulator makes several forward-looking promises.

A township on the eastern outskirts of Bangalore was among the first to run into council elections after the Supreme Court ruled on new disclosure rules for candiates. Public Affairs Centre looks at whether candidates and officials actually followed due process.

Karnataka's West Coast Paper Mill had to deal with much more than shareholders on the day of its recent Annual General Meeting.

Subramaniam Vincent profiles eGovernments Foundation's partnership with Karnataka to create better property-tracking systems, and notes the early gains for the state.

The Karnataka Election Watch Committee collected an enormous amount of data about candidates as the state went into Assembly and Lok Sabha polls late last month. A brief report.

Subramaniam Vincent follows the intrigue, as New Delhi seeks to weaken Right to Information laws on the one hand, and receives a proposal to strengthen RTI at the same time.

There is no overlap between the administrative jurisdictions of various city agencies, or congruence with political boundaries. The result: the citizen is confused, the local politician is confused, the agency representatives are confused. Ramesh Ramanathan calls for a transformation of this chaotic situation.

Water table reports in Karnataka show that the future looks bleak. While rainwater harvesting (RWH) is looked upon as a viable solution and has become a buzzword, the state has only taken an incremental implementation path, with urban areas currently leading rural areas, reports Padmalatha Ravi.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is the nation's supreme audit institution. It is widely respected for its unshaken independence in auditing government expenditure. But in its scrutiny of Karnataka's Gerusoppa dam, it let off the Karnataka Power Corporation on two key counts. Himanshu Upadhyaya interprets the CAG's 2004 report.

A citizens forum at Bangalore has been spearheading interventions using the Karnataka Right to Information Act for the past year. The Katte members' focus has helped expose the law's weaknesses and make recommendations to better the recently passed Central Right to Information Bill. Kathyayini Chamaraj reports.

Residents of seven villages in Kolar district depend on water from the Mudiyanur tank which is not in good shape and in need of de-silting. Still, the villagers' worship of goddess Chowdeswari has helped them preserve an age-old tradition of water allocation, finds Surekha Sule.

On 31 December 2005, the curtains are set to come down on the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd's long disputed mining operations in the protected Kudremukh National Park. But ensuring an end to mining in one of the most stunning landscapes of the country has not been easy. Pavithra Sankaran provides a telling narrative.

On 31 December 2005, the curtains are set to come down on the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd's long disputed mining operations in the protected Kudremukh National Park. But ensuring an end to mining in one of the most stunning landscapes of the country has not been easy. Pavithra Sankaran provides a telling narrative.

Should Bangalore and its surrounding municipalities be merged into a single jurisdiction, as the state's politicians are now proposing to do? The Constitutional standard as well as Bangalore's abysmal record of administering even the core metropolis both argue against centralisation. The India Together editorial.

Rescue operations carried out with tactful involvement of media and the police can offer victims protection from further trauma, and also begin to sensitise a number of people on the complex issues involved. Kirti Mishra reports on the experiences and learning of Odanadi Seva Samsthe.

The Karnataka Governor, T N Chaturvedi, recently asked the state government for an explanation on why the state wants the central government to clear the Dandeli dam on the river Kali. This, in light of the fact that state government departments had themselves recommended and shelved the project earlier. An India Together report.

It's 'ready to serve' and like a soft drink bottle or tetra pack, you can take it inside any office, drink and then dispose. Sold with the brand name Tender Fresh, 1500 – 2000 tender coconuts every day are reaching a clientele that reads like the who's who of Bangalore's software companies. Shree Padre reports.

School authorities say, and records show, that while enrolment has not been substantially improved as a result of mid-day meal programmes, school attendance has certainly gone up by 10-12%. However, there is still plenty of room for improvement in the management of the scheme. Padmalatha Ravi reports.

Efforts to make learning more interactive and more fun for students appear promising, but it may be too soon to judge if they are positively impacting children's performance in standard tests and surveys. Meanwhile, teachers complain that these efforts have added to their already heavy burden. Padmalatha Ravi reports.

Bagalkot district in Karnataka is today emerging as a model for how AIDS awareness can make all the difference in stemming the disease. It is also showing how it is not impossible to create an atmosphere where HIV positive people can continue to live with freedom, dignity and hope. Ramesh Menon reports.

When a teacher specially trained to handle children with special needs started work at a local government school in Bangalore, children were benefited and stopped dropping out. Padmalatha Ravi has more.

The latest vocational education courses are presenting job opportunities for high school graduates that their poor parents lacked. Institutes conducting bilingual training are particularly helpful for students who are very likely to have not schooled in English medium. Padmalatha Ravi has more.

A 3-acre pond dug in the Yenepoya Medical College 15 kms from Mangalore is catching run-off from about 15 acres of the campus and from an equal area of their neighbourhood. It has already saved the institution a substantial sum on getting water from outside. Shree Padre reports.

79-year-old Achyutha Bhat brought surangas to Manila village in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. His passion for the water caves - which help tap and supply water - and his commitment to training newcomers in suranga-digging has been a boost for local farmers, reports Shree Padre.

A Karnataka Bank branch in Mysore is the setting for a unique tale of investment - in water. The bank's senior manager devised a simple plan to allow accumulated rainwater, which was earlier just pumped out and wasted, to percolate into the earth. Shree Padre reports.

The proposed 1000 MW coal-fired power plant at Chamalapura, Mysore, to be located on agricultural land and within 30 kilometres of the Nagarhole and Bandipur national parks, evoked strong protests last year. Recent announcements indicate that the government is going slow. Nandini Chami has more.

Over the years, nationalised banks have had to buckle up and polish their looks to serve new generation customers and meet stiff competition from the private sector. But the personal touch, valuable to many customers, has been lost, laments Sudha Narasimhachar a former PSU-banker.

Frustrated with the hardness of borewell water, H Ramesh and his family are harvesting rain in their Mysore house for almost all their domestic uses. Shree Padre has more.

Earlier, this tank was providing water for 600 trees only. Now 2000 trees are being irrigated from the tank itself for four months. Shree Padre as another success story, this one from southwestern Karnataka.

In the name of good governance, decision-making powers in Karnataka are being given to parastatal organizations and non-elected task forces. Kathyayini Chamaraj asks for a re-look at outsourcing government.

Post October floods in North Karnataka, Dalits find themselves in a greater predicament. A century of struggle for equal rights and worse, fundamental faith in human progress, is at stake, writes Savita Hiremath.

Karnataka's plan to harvest power from the Gundia river that runs through the Hassan and Dakshin Kannada districts has been criticised by environmentalists, farmers and the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. Bhanu Sridharan investigates.

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.