-Hindustan Times Drinking water shortages are known to spark scuffles , but last week, it led to Sunil Giri, 23, losing his life. Giri was beaten to death in the Ramgarh district of Jharkhand for objecting to his neighbour Anwar Hussain taking more than his share from a drinking-water tanker that had reached the drought-affected village after several days. Similar violence over water sharing has also been reported from water-scarce districts in...

-Hindustan Times Chennai: The year was 1986. It was a hot, humid day in June when Dr Suniti Solomon first discovered that the deadly HIV/AIDS virus had made its way to India. Then a young doctor, Suniti was testing 100 sex workers as a part of a research project at the Madras Medical College (MMC). Little did she known that a small, humble Madras laboratory’s preliminary research would precipitate a medical challenge on...

-The Tribune A confession by IMF economists in the flagship magazine stating that the kind of growth promoted by neoliberalism promotes inequality has created a buzz. Once in a while, something unexpected happens so stunningly that one finds it unbelievable in the first instance. A group of three economists in IMF's research department has written a joint paper criticising some key aspects of IMF's creed of neo-liberalism. It appears as unbelievable as...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The national capital is not “smart”, neither are financial capital Mumbai, information technology hub Bengaluru and eastern India’s biggest city Kolkata. They actually wallow at the bottom of a global livability survey of 181 cities. The 2016 Cities in Motion Index (CIMI), prepared jointly by the Barcelona-based University of Navarrara’s IESE Business School and the Centre for Globalisation and Strategy, found Indian cities floundering on most parameters that...

-Hindustan Times India has the largest population of modern slaves in the world with more than 18 million people trapped as bonded labourers, forced beggars, sex workers and child soldiers, a global survey report said on Monday. The Global Slavery Index by human rights organisation Walk Free Foundation said the number was 1.4% of India’s population, the fourth highest among 167 countries with the largest proportion of slaves. “Existing research suggests all forms...