Women in Chennai can feel safer about venturing out alone; government statistics are on their side. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report on crime in India in 2009, Chennai ranks 34th among 35 cities across the country when it comes to crimes and offences committed against women. While Delhi, Hyderabad , Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Mumbai take the top five slots, Chennai is penultimate on the list, followed by...

In the middle of a debate about corruption in high places, the curse struck in a macabre manner from the base of the pyramid on the eve of the celebration of the republic. An additional collector was burnt alive in daylight by a gang that sprinkled kerosene on him after the 44-year-old officer caught their aides pilfering fuel from a tanker in Maharashtra’s Nashik today. The prime suspect, who has a history...

The International Monetary Fund has warned that India faces a range of “money laundering and terrorist financing risks” and remains a “significant” target of militant groups. In a report, the IMF appreciated New Delhi’s efforts to tackle the twin problems but raised concerns over the absence of convictions for money laundering. The report drawn on July 2010 was released on Monday. “As a leader among the emerging economies in Asia with a strongly...

I remember being disturbed enough to stop watching the 2003 Hindi movie Matrubhumi(motherland). Set in the future, it depicted an Indian village populated only by men. It gets that way after a man, yearning for a boy, publicly drowns his newborn girl in a vat of milk, sparking a custom that wipes out women. So the men watch porn, fornicate with farm animals. A father marries his five sons to...

The virus that causes Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is slow moving and will not spread across the country as fast as the H1N1 swine flu virus, experts have said. However, the mortality rate among those affected by Congo virus will be far more than H1N1. In an exclusive interview to TOI, Dr A C Mishra, director of the National Institute of Virology, Pune, said different viruses have different characteristics. Influenza viruses...