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Searching for Charlie


"If we really love Andrews' memory," said Gandhi when his close friend passed away, then "we may not have hate in us for Englishmen, of whom Andrews was among the best and noblest." Ramachandra Guha visits his grave.




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Make trade fair, say sugarcane farmers


A multi-state campaign to draw attention to the adverse effect of agriculture and trade policies on sugarcane farmers has just ended. Padmalatha Ravi spoke with farmers and campaign coordinators in Tamilnadu, and traces the growth and decline of agricultural families' fortunes around this crop.




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Outsourcing food production


As food prices rise around the world, the political economy of food is being rewritten, with countries and companies moving to acquire large tracts of farmland around the world to secure their interests, notes Devinder Sharma.




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Researching turbulent waters


Researchers around the country gathered to discuss solutions to the key water-related problems India faces. From conflicts between states, to water-saving agricultural practices, to receding glaciers, a number of issues were raised, and their economic and social implications weighed. Surekha Sule reports.




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Development disconnected from research


The practical management of water systems has become detached from the knowledge gained through research, which has made great progress in the last two or three decades. Because critical elements of research have been externalised, the induction of new inter-disciplinary learning has been greatly limited, writes Jayanta Bandyopadhyay.




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Powerful forces get water for power


The construction of barrages to meet the water needs of thermal power plants in western Chattisgarh shows that irregularities involved in the allocation of this resource may be as large as the ones in coal allocation itself. Shripad Dharmadhikary throws light on the issue.




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Hill women no longer panic over water scarcity


In many part of rural India, women spend most of their time walking long distances to collect water for their household's needs. Nitin Jugran Bahuguna visits the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand where the women no longer have to worry about fetching water from long distances thanks to an intervention that has brought potable water right to their doorstep.




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Rescuing the police force


Autonomy will not improve the IPS, instead it will simply make a system already tainted by its conduct even less accountable, says Arvind Verma.




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Infotech and creating resources


Information technology can and must expand from merely being an agent of the trickle-down effect to active resource mobilization, says Krishna Rupanagunta.




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Is the lack of human resources choking your city?


Municipal corporations in India have neither any grip on the number of staffers employed and their skillsets nor any mechanism to ascertain these. Madhavi Rajadhyaksha discusses several studies including the ASICS from Janaagraha to expose what ails urban local bodies.





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At MasterCard, Finding a Signature Style: Priceless

At MasterCard’s New York City tech hub in the Flatiron District, a mix of business and startup sensibilities informs office style, whether it’s hoodies, tailored jackets or the occasional bow tie.




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How to Safely Groom Your Dog Between Haircuts

After weeks with nonessential businesses closed, many dog owners are stuck with shaggy pups that are barely recognizable. Gary Angell, co-owner and head groomer at My Two Dogs, shares his tips to keep your dog looking fresh while you wait. Photo: Adam Banicki/The Wall Street Journal




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Uber Brings Motorcycle Hailing Service to Indonesia

Uber Technologies Inc. this week brought its motorcycle-taxi hailing service to Indonesia, where it will face strong competition from similar apps as startups battle for users in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.




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'We drove out an evil force called Left'

'People of this state have suffered for long. Hence, their patience level is very low at the moment. We have to act double quick to improve the state of life in Bengal,' says senior Congress leader Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury.




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March Jobs Report Doesn't Tell the Full Story; Here's Why

U.S. employers shed 701,000 jobs in March, in the worst month for job losses since the 2007-2009 recession. But these losses still don't show the pandemic's full impact on the labor market. WSJ's Eric Morath explains. Photo: JOHN MINCHILLO/ASSOCIATED PRESS




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Apple iPhone 5 Circus

Outside the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, WSJ's Andy Jordan takes a look at the modern, yet "ancient" customs of the Apple iPhone circus of official iPhone announcments, and takes a look at the features of the new iPhone 5.




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Solar scam heat scorches Kerala


Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has come under heavy fire after several of his personal aides have been found to have close links with a fraudster couple who have embezzled huge amounts of money out of investors. P N Venugopal provides a roundup of the sordid saga.




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Empowering rural women: Moving beyond 50 percent


The imminent Panchayat elections in Karnataka will see 50 percent reservation for women at all tiers, but how can one ensure real authority for them? Proposed amendments to the Panchayat Raj Act may hold some answers.




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Questions in search of answers


The success of Operation Sarp Vinash must be understood from independent scrutiny of the Army's claims, as well as analysis of new military strategy, says Firdaus Ahmed.




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In search of the missing link


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.




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The Indian mercantilist empire


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.




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Reorienting research priorities


Having failed to meet the challenges of the post-green revolution era, agricultural research has reached a dead end, says Devinder Sharma.




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Biotech policy : task force report


Suman Sahai comments on the recently released report of Task Force on Biotechnology policy.




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In search of Binodini and her peers


The leading ladies of Bengali theatre in the late 19th and 20th centuries presented an intriguing portrait of women caught between two worlds, liberated in a way, yet shackled in others. A recent performance as tribute to these artists leads Shoma Chatterji to reminisce their lives and times.




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Unleashing Political Renaissance By Rejecting Patriarchy


Boregaon is a small village in Solapur district of Maharashtra where men have shunned the patriarchal mindset to support women’s political empowerment and gender equality, writes Suchismita Pai.




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In search of the elusive female traveller


Most Indian languages do not have a specific word for the female traveller. The traveller is by definition male, a fact that provokes Namrata R Ganneri to delve deeper into the gendered nuances of travel and its implications for women.




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Micro credit gathers force


There is now mounting hope that micro finance can be a large scale poverty alleviation tool. Banks too are shedding their old reluctance to lend to the poor, and are looking to tap the expertise of micro credit groups to create a new market. Ramesh Menon reports on the status quo and the challenges ahead.




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World Bank's CAS: The forward march of failure


The newly announced country assistance strategy for India is the continuation of what the World Bank has been pushing in this country and elsewhere in the last 15 years or so years, with nothing to show for it, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.




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Inflation: perception and reality


There is an urgent need for reliable and transparent consumer price indices that covers the large majority of Indian families, from the poorest upwards. Kannan Kasturi reports.




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Professional or mercenary?


The relationship between professionals such as doctors, lawyers and teachers and the society they serve is increasingly and radically changing. The reasons behind the same, however, may go deeper than the obvious mercenary tendencies of the former. Shankar Jaganathan ruminates.




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Major problems of our time are all interconnected


Recently Darryl D’Monte interviewed the famous physicist Fritjof Capra at the annual meet of Greenaccord international environmental journalists in Italy. Here he reports on Capra’s separate remarks about the environment, along with quotes from his books and blogs.




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Little panchayat, percentage raj


In Andhra Pradesh, the Naidu government's Janmabhoomi model of development gutted the panchayats and curbed local democracy. Hence, the panchayats have proved totally ineffective during the agrarian crisis, reports P Sainath.




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Commerce and crisis hit students


Two processes have hit Wayanad. One is the policy-driven commercialisation of education. And the second is the collapse of Wayanad's economy. For the first time in decades in this education-proud state thousands of students are dropping out of college and school. P Sainath continues his series on the agrarian crisis in Wayanad.




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'Forced privatisation' of cotton


Disputes over output do not hide the trouble Maharashtra's cotton economy is in. Small farmers face another year of huge losses. The role of nature is very minor compared to conscious policy measures that have undermined the farmer and world cotton prices, writes P Sainath.




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And now for a commercial break


Knowing that big money is undermining the game as a whole, and pussyfooting around it, just isn't cricket, writes P Sainath.




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The narcissism of the neurotic


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.




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In search of the blooms


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.




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Sources, two. Understanding, nil.


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.




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Righting the wrongs in divorce law


To shield women from vilification, the National Commission for Women (NCW) is all set to recommend strict penalties against men who level false allegations of adultery against their wives in divorce cases. Tripti Nath has more.




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Why a depoliticised police force is a distant dream


With only 14 functional State Security Commissions in the country, and those too with flawed compositions and diluted roles, the efforts towards minimising government interference in police functioning have naturally been lax. Navya PK cites critical findings of a CHRI Report that shows the present sad state of our SSCs.




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Commercial real estate set to be brought under new law


While a list of approved amendments to the proposed law on regulation of real estate is yet to be made public, it is now clear that the Bill will apply to commercial projects as well. Here is a round-up of the recent developments, from PRS Legislative Research.




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Turning a full circle


The situation that Maheshwar Project is in, brings sharply into focus the issue of accountability of those responsible for the decisions that impact millions of people, involve thousands of crores of rupees and vast natural resources. Shripad Dharmadhikary hopes that Maheshwar would also offer a chance to demonstrate how those liable for the mess can be held accountable.




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Banning commercial surrogacy


A brief overview of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 by PRS legislative.




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In search of quality care


The public's perception that government facilities and services are poor has led them to abandon these in favour of private providers. But those are not necessarily better, writes R Balasubramaniam.




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NREGS: A farce at Latehar


The first-ever Lok Adalat on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was held recently in Latehar, Jharkhand. Most petitioners came in the hope of receiving unemployment cheques, or at least having their job applications accepted, but left with neither. Pradeep Bhargava reports.




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Char dwellers turn to sugarcane, but will it be enough?


A number of families residing in the char areas of Assam have apparently staved off misfortune by taking up sugarcane cultivation, but it may require more than just that to stem the trend of migration and improve living conditions in the region. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports.




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PDP govt circumvents its own social media ban


Two weeks into the ban, the question to ask is whether the situation has improved and whether protests in Kashmir have abated. Moazum Mohammad says the answer is no.




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An election-year scarcity


Severe shortages of power and water are predicted for the coming months in much of the North. Himanshu Thakkar looks beyond the 'natural phenomena' that are blamed.




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Fresh water scarcity demands fresh ideas


A growing world population has led to rising demand for fresh water to ensure a growing supply of food and to meet rising nutrition demands. Where will this water come from? A new publication co-sponsored by CGIAR sheds some light on the narrowing options. Sudhirendar Sharma reviews the report.