-People's Democracy IT seems the Sheila Dixit government of Delhi, backed by powerful elements in the UPA-2 central government, will let nothing stand in the way of water privatisation in the capital. Several earlier attempts going back many years to fully or partially privatise distribution of water, especially the big loan application to the World Bank in 2005, were foiled by vigilant community organisations, public interest groups, trade unions and political...

-The Indian Express The students of a municipal school in South Delhi have been shifted out of their classrooms, into the corridors, as the officials of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) have set up base at the school to implement the Aadhaar scheme. Since May 6, more than 500 students of Class III at the MCD primary school in Sangam Vihar, near Khanpur, have been attending classes in the corridors or...

-The Hindustan Times Fifty per cent of drinking water supplied to north Delhi is not fit for consumption and is a carrier of cholera, typhoid and jaundice, surveys conducted by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation have found. On the other hand, people in south Delhi get clean, drinkable water, said a recent survey by the civic body’s south arm and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). The north Delhi corporation said that of...

-The New York Times   New Delhi: Yasmeen Khan dons her burqa and steps out of her house in the Nizamuddin neighborhood of Delhi every evening to walk a short distance to a 10-foot-high stone wall. Behind the wall is paradise - a place where she can remove her burqa and hijab, enjoy cool fresh air in her hair, exercise and gossip with friends. Hundreds of women regularly visit the "Pardah Bagh," a...

Last week, the census commissioner released the second round of data, which showed that the move towards towns and cities received a fresh impetus in the decade ended 2011, as a result of which the country achieved a laudable milestone: a little under one in three Indians now lives in areas classified as urban, reversing a lull apparent in the previous two decades. This is something to be welcomed as in...