Just over five years ago, a global study had labelled India the world’s “lone polio exporter”, prompting the United Nations secretary-general to write a letter of concern to Manmohan Singh. Even three years ago, anti-polio workers in western Uttar Pradesh, then the disease’s epicentre in India, were often abused and driven away when they came to the villages for the vaccination programme. Such memories today flooded into the minds of doctors and...

Nearly 80 years after an earthquake snapped a critical link between Mithilanchal and Seemanchal regions of Bihar, these two areas, separated by the Kosi river, will be reconnected with the inauguration of a 1.8km bridge on Wednesday. People had depended either on boats or circuitous road route till now.  Union road transport minister C P Joshi will on Wednesday inaugurate the four-lane Kosi Mahasetu, connecting Bhaptiahi and Saraigarh in Supaul district....

On a wall on Station Road, among posters of Khoonkar Darinde and The Dirty Picture, Amitabh Bachchan looks out of a row of yellow-and-red posters and says, “Do boond har baar.” Here in Moradabad, the town in western Uttar Pradesh that till recently exported, besides its intricate brassware, strains of the deadly polio virus, the posters have been around for long. The writing on the wall was clear: this was...

The winds of democracy are making it harder for India to negotiate the construction of mega hydel projects in Bhutan. Fixing terms and conditions for bringing power from Bhutan was a cakewalk with the first three hydel projects five years ago. With newspapers other than the Kuensel , a tiny but vocal Opposition in Bhutanese Parliament and exiled leaders raising issues relating to sovereignty, Indian officials are now having to work...

-IANS   The flood situation in Bihar remained grim Tuesday with the Lakhandei river breaching its embankment at three places, affecting thousands, officials said. Lakhandei, swelled by the flood waters of turbulent Bagmati, breached the embankment in over 50 metres near Basantpur and Aurai in Muzaffarpur district. The flood waters then submerged over 100 villages, affecting nearly one lakh people. Road and rail communications were disrupted at several places as flood waters submerged roads and...