Ranjan Daimary faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) on Thursday issued fresh threat to all communities residing in the Bodo belt, security forces or “other Indian communities” warning of more “heinous and horrible results” if they make “any mistake or crime against the NDFB.” The fresh warning came after three days of serial killings by the outfit in which 24 civilians, majority of them Hindi-speaking people, were killed...

The heat on telecom minister A Raja is rising, with the Comptroller and Auditor General holding him personally responsible for the sale of 2G spectrum at dirt cheap rates in 2008, resulting in a loss of up to Rs 1.70 lakh crore to the national exchequer. The damning indictment stacks the odds even higher against Raja, who is already under intense scrutiny by the telecom watchdog, civil society and the Supreme...

Every afternoon at about four, a slight woman named Runi slips out of the cramped, airless room that she shares with her husband and their sixteen children. She skirts the drainage ditch in front of the building, then walks toward the pile of hardened dung cakes that people in this slum on the edge of the northeastern Indian city of Patna use for fuel. Dressed in a bright-yellow sari shot...

Asserting there were “sensitive” environmental issues in the way of the Navi Mumbai airport project, Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday met Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and the two reached a compromise, signalling that the new international airport may finally clear all hurdles by next month. “We have made good progress on a number of issues. The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Environment and Forests Ministry...

The UID project has both ‘security' and ‘developmental' dimensions. The former leads to an invasive state; the latter leaves us with a retreating state. Is identity the “missing link” in India's efforts to rise as an “inclusive” economic superpower? Can an identity-linked and technology-based solution change the face of governance in India? Given the euphoria around the Unique Identification (UID) project, one is tempted to believe so. However, a careful look...