The Talegaon Dabhade police are checking the details of the cases, which were being pursued by RTI activist Arun Mane, to identify the persons behind the attack on the activist. Mane, a close associate of whistleblower Satish Shetty, was assaulted by an unidentified person at his footwear shop in Talegaon, about 40 km from here, on Sunday. Mane sustained minor injuries on his forehead chest. He was discharged from hospital...

The economy shows consistent signs of growth. The challenge in the new year is to make development more equitable and broad-based… 2010 was a year of relief that soon grew into despondency. We were relieved that India had pulled out of the deepest post-War recession relatively unscathed. The soundness of its cautious macro-economic management was underlined once again and the US economy is also looking like getting slowly back on...

Even as the new year brings little cheer on the price front, the famed apathy of our officials continues to move the common man to tears. Nearly 200 tonnes of onions Imported from Pakistan are lying at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) at Nhava Sheva while officials pass the buck for not releasing the bulb to onion-starved markets. The affected traders have indicated that the cargo is stuck for want...

In recent years, the agricultural growth rate has tended to be lower than the population growth rate. This year, the former is nearing the target of 4%. But we still have a very large percentage of undernourished children, women and men. Poverty and destitution also remain stubborn. The Indian food security enigma rises from the mismatch between the grain mountains and the hungry millions. What are the prospects for ensuring...

There has been a gross simplification of the issues involved in the exposures in the Radia tapes on the lack of integrity among mediapersons. In order to understand how exactly journalists really function it is necessary to understand the overall context in which they operate and clarify some of the persistent myths about what the profession is all about. Four myths in particular need to be dissected: That it enjoins...