For the Indian media, 2010 has been almost Dickensian: it’s been the best of  times, but also possibly the worst. A chief  minister resigning, a Union minister stepping down, senior politicians raided: when was the last time the Indian media could claim so many ‘victories’ in a single year? Yet, just as we were rejoicing at the return of  hard, uncompromising news journalism, along come the Niira Radia tapes to...

The historian Ramachandra Guha has famously described India as a fifty-fifty democracy. But even admirers of India as a functioning democracy will perhaps be forced to admit that certain events in 2010 forced the needle to move beyond fifty against democracy. Threats to democracy and democratic rights have never been as evident, and as powerful, since the dark days of the Emergency in 1975-76 as they were in the course...

Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday ruled out review of the conditional environmental clearance given to the Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Maharashtra, and urged ‘interest groups' not to use environment as an issue to target the government. “As far as environment clearance is concerned, we have done all that is required and all different interest groups should not use environment as a shield behind which...

Concerned at the rising food inflationary trend, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday hinted at more steps to check the rising prices, even as food inflation surged to a 10-week high of 14.44 per cent. The Cabinet Committee on Prices, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, met in the evening to review the situation and expressed concern at the spurt in the prices of eggs, fruits, vegetables, milk and other...

It's simple and doable, but it is deliberately being avoided: N. Ram N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, on Tuesday emphasised the need for an internal news ombudsman in the press and the news channels in the country. He was delivering a lecture on ‘Media ethics and police-media relations' organised here by the Mumbai police. “Unfortunately, no one else has taken this up [except The Hindu which has a readers' editor] because...