When India  won its bid for the 2010 Commonwealth Games seven years ago, the event instantly became an emblem of national prestige. But as the country prepares to open the games on Sunday evening, an opportunity to burnish its global image has instead become a national embarrassment. The litany of problems plaguing the games — collapsed footbridges, filthy dorms, cartoonish corruption — have not only made headlines around the world....

The amount of rural reportage in the Indian media remains far too low, with even important stories such as those on farmer suicides tending to be ignored. One of the outspoken critics of this trend has been P Sainath, rural-affairs editor of The Hindu  and 2007 winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. He was also the journalist who originally broke the story on...

Noted development economist and Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen talks about how government funds find their way into insurgent hands, and why the government is unable to check this. There are a number of reports that suggest that development funds are landing in the wrong hands. What are the various aspects of fund diversions? It's a well-reported fact that public Money is finding its way into the hands of extremists. There...

This time in Uttar Pradesh, panchayat elections — the first phase starts Monday — are being fought with an intensity never seen before. Eight persons have already died in poll-related violence over the past 15 days. All the trappings of a typical poll are there — hoardings; free flow of liquor, Money and clothes for voters; and candidates moving about in SUVs. “So much Money and violence was seen neither in the...

Total toll from `mysterious' fever continued to escalate with 13 more deaths reported from Ramabai Nagar district ( Kanpur Dehat) on Sunday. More and more persons infected with the unidentified virus flocked the district hospital in Akbarpur. So far, 256 persons have already died during the past few days. "My one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Supriya has died in the absence of proper treatment. My neighbour's children-- Lalit (8) and Neelu (10)-- also died...