-The Telegraph   The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti and the All Assam Students Union today launched statewide protests against the movement of turbines meant for lower Subansiri hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh. Two Bangladeshi vessels, carrying the NHPC turbines, which had remained stranded for months at Bongshichar in Dhubri district following anti-dam protests, had yesterday set sail for Jogighopa in Bongaigaon district to offload the consignment. In Guwahati, about 200 KMSS members, led by...

With nearly 800 million people unable to read or write, the United Nations today marked International Literacy Day with a warning that illiteracy undermines efforts to eliminate a host of social ills such as poverty and sickness and threatens the very stability of nations. “The costs are enormous,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message. “Illiteracy exacerbates cycles of poverty, ill-health and deprivation. It weakens communities and undermines democratic processes through...

-The Business Recorder   Surging flood waters in northern and eastern India have affected millions of people, forcing many from their homes as swollen rivers wash away roads and make rescue work difficult, government and aid officials said on Friday. Aid workers said 5.2 million people are now affected, double the figure from 10 days ago, as tail-end seasonal monsoon rains sweep the heavily-populated states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam where...

The Lokpal Bill was introduced in Parliament for the eighth time in the 15th Lok Sabha as Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj mentioned on Saturday. But surprisingly, each time the Lokpal Bill was introduced, events took such a turn that the legislation remained elusive. Will the Bill be through after the hype it got following Anna Hazare's movement? Here's a lowdown of what happened each time the Bill was introduced through the...

The substitution of one man for the people, and the reduction of the people's role merely to being supporters and cheerleaders for one man's actions, is antithetical to democracy. The Central government's flip-flops on Anna Hazare are obvious: it went from abusing him (through the Congress spokesperson) for sheltering corruption, to extolling him for his idealism; from arresting him, without any justification, and getting him remanded to judicial custody for a...