-The Hindu Chennai: Completely unprepared for disasters: the hospitals in Chennai — private as well as government — were particularly vulnerable, improvising solutions as the situation developed. As water levels rose, Chennai saw every single system associated with modern life abysmally fail —houses collapsed, roads caved in, communication networks went down, sewage pipelines were wrecked, and carcasses floated on roads. Patients in government and private hospitals across the city took a beating. Completely...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: There was no let up to the rain fury in the city and several coastal parts of Tamil Nadu. The city received 34.5cm rain in the past 24 hours. Met officials said the state hasn't been lashed by such a downpour in 100 years. Road and and rail links are down and the airport is flooded. Complaints of patchy to poor mobile phone service have been coming...

-The Hindu The observation by the Supreme Court that political leaders should not take criticism as a personal insult highlights a particular kind of intolerance that is rarely referred to in the ongoing debate on the subject: the inability of public figures to tolerate criticism and their repeated resort to criminal defamation proceedings to stifle adverse comment. Nothing exemplifies this as much as the 100-odd prosecutions launched by the government of...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: Tribals of Kalrayan Hills and Jawad Hills in Vellore district are called 'silent woodcutters' — and not for nothing. They are masters of art of tree felling. They can trek, cut trees with barely any noise and bear away the logs on their heads in a matter of hours. It is for this skill that they are in great demand among red sanders mafia, centred in the...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: Blazing a trail through intricate government and judicial process, gritty transgender K Prithika Yashini has finally realized her dream of donning the uniform of a sub-inspector of police in Tamil Nadu Police department. The Madras high court on Thursday declared that she was entitled to be appointed sub-inspector of police. Calling for creation of separate category to accommodate transgenders in employment, the judges further said: "We are...