In the season of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council too is mounting pressure on the Centre to accept its recommendations on various social sector legislations. Over the past one month, the council has handed in its versions of the food security and communal violence bills as well as four notes on land acquisition, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), protection of street vendors and the...

The World Bank has approved $1 billion as credit and loan to support India's efforts to clean up the Ganga river. The sprawling river basin accounts for a fourth of the country's water resources and is home to more than 400 million people. The $1.556 billion National Ganga River Basin Project with $1 billion in financing from the World Bank group, including $199 million interest-free credit and $801 million low-interest loan, was...

Even as the CPI(M) brass show a brave face and publicly maintain they will form the next government in West Bengal, the party’s internal feedback from the districts shows the Left Front will go out of power after a record stint of 34 years. The feedback has come from districts where polling is already over. The final phase is on Tuesday, in just 14 constituencies. The counting of votes, with those...

In Tamil Nadu, untouchability is so deep-rooted that there are separate burial spaces for Dalits and upper castes even in some urban pockets. “Samarasam ulavum idame Nam vaazhvil kaanaa Samarasam ulavum idame… Jaathiyil melor enrum Thaaznthavar keezhor enrum bethamillathu Ellorum mudivil serndhidum kaadu Thollai inriye thoongidum veedu Ulaginile ithuthaan Nam vaazhvil kaanaa Samarasam ulavum idame…” (Here, in this place pervades equality Which one could not have seen ever in one's lifetime! Steering clear of caste discriminations Such as the high, the low and...

THE Tamil Nadu government introduced with much fanfare the samathuva mayanam (common graveyard) concept during the previous Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam regime with the proclaimed goal of ending all caste-based discrimination at burial-cum-cremation grounds. An official announcement was made that panchayats which set up samathuva mayanams would get an “incentive grant” of Rs.1 lakh for promoting communal harmony. A few panchayats had received the incentive when the government appeared to beat a hasty...