-The Business Standard   Hundreds of youths in the Posco project affected villages who have been deprived of employment in the preliminary construction work of the project on Tuesday agitated at Gadkujang pressing for fulfillment of their demands. Sources said, the construction agency which has bagged the contract for some preliminary project work at the site, sought to win over the support of local unemployed youths by distributing job cards to them. The...

It is the 21st century version of the classic rabbit and ToRtoise sToRy. Last weekend, a group of cyclists decided to race against Jet-BlueAirlines in Los Angeles when one of its busiest highways was shut down for construction and renovation. To help people get across the town fast, JetBlue started a special flight service. A group of cyclists decided to challenge the airlines to a bikeversus-airlines race. It turned out...

Over the last few decades thenon-party volunteer organisations have been much more effective in Indian public space and more articulate in policy debates than the traditional Left parties. This essay, while recognising the manifold achievements of these organisations, reflects on the serious limitations of the activities of the voluntary secToR and argues that when they usurp certain roles they can become a threat to representative democracy. [Pranab Bardhan (bardhan@econ.berkeley.edu) is at...

-The Indian Express   The way to Posco project remained blocked with irate villagers of Mathsahi and Balisahi of Nuagaon panchayat opposing work for the fourth day on Wednesday. Incidentally, these two villages are main entry points to Nuagaon and Dhinkia panchayats and the administration had planned to take up work in other hamlets after felling trees here. While the recent face-off between villagers and police turned Posco supporters into antagonists, the...

When Sujatha’s husband learned that she had conceived just five months after they got married, he became agitated over what he called her "ill-timed pregnancy". To worsen her husband’s anxiety, a test to determine the sex of the foetus showed she was carrying a girl. Sujatha, a public school teacher, and her husband, a civil engineer – who asked that their full names be withheld – are from well-off and educated...