-The Times of India   The compulsions of elecToRal politics makes political dispensations forget the past, and set out to 'right' the 'wrongs'. Punjab's SAD-BJP government has announced plans to observe the death anniversary of revolutionary poet Sant Ram Udasi at state level, who during his lifetime was subjected to brutal state repression, branded a Naxalite and slapped with cases of sedition. But, now 25 years after his passed away, the state is changing...

To understand the role which the media should be playing in India we have to first understand the hisToRical context. India is presently passing through a transitional period in its hisToRy: a transition from a feudal agricultural society to a modern industrial society. This is a very painful and agonising period. The old feudal society is being uprooted and ToRn apart; but the new, modern, industrial society has not yet been...

Coming months ‘crucial' The International Labour Organisation has warned that a jobs crisis caused by the slowdown in the global economy threatens a wave of widespread social unrest engulfing both rich and poor countries. Highlighting the darkening prospects for employment, the Geneva-based ILO said policymakers were running out of time to head off a double-dip recession in labour markets. “We have reached the moment of truth,” said Raymond ToRres, direcToR of the...

The tribal people of Chhattisgarh are in an extremely dangerous situation, caught as they are between the state forces and the Maoists. THIRTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD Soni Sori, an Adivasi schoolteacher from Chhattisgarh, was arrested in Delhi on October 4 on charges of acting as a conduit between the Essar group and the Maoists, the former accused of giving “protection money” to the latter. On October 7, she moved the Delhi High Court to...

Water, the most vital of all resources, has emerged as a key issue that would determine if Asia is headed toward cooperation or competition. After all, the driest continent in the world is not Africa but Asia, where availability of freshwater is not even half the global annual average of 6,380 cubic metres per inhabitant. When the estimated reserves of rivers, lakes, and aquifers are added up, Asia has less than...