A marked jump in the number of Maoist kangaroo courts this year points to an expansion in rebel “guerrilla zones” and “liberated zones” in central and eastern India, government sources have said. The Maoists initially form “guerrilla areas” by pushing in militia and introducing the local people to their writ. These develop into “guerrilla zones” in the second stage and into “liberated zones” in the third. The so-called liberated zones in Maad...

The government’s decision to exempt the CBI from the RTI Act has been termed as “illegal and illegitimate” by civil society activists. On Saturday, the members — Team Anna and the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) — lambasted the move, saying it revealed the government’s true colours on the transparency issue. “It only serves the government’s purpose to keep the CBI corrupt, opaque and thus pliant. As long as...

-The New York Times   India has 1.2 billion people, among them bankers, gurus, rag pickers, billionaires, snake charmers, software engineers, lentil farmers, rickshaw drivers, Maoist rebels, Bollywood movie stars and Vedic scholars, to name a few. Humanity runneth over. Except in one profession: India is searching for a hangman. Usually, India would not need one, given the rarity of executions. The last was in 2004. But in May, India's president unexpectedly rejected...

It's that time of the year when Kishore Lal Singh's eyes almost involuntarily scan the skies. The monsoons are coming. In the months ahead, for this Bhil farmer growing cotton, maize and soya south of the Malwa plateau in Madhya Pradesh, life will again hang on a knife's edge. If it rains well, his two bighas (about four basketball courts) of cotton will yield 1,000 kg. If not, he will...

Policies aiming to combat malnutrition are ignoring an entire generation of women whose overall health has a direct bearing on children’s growth, say advocacy groups and researchers Cradling a frail son on her hip and with a plastic bag stuffed with clothes in one hand, Tara Jadam walked into the rehabilitation centre inside the district hospital here to spend the next two weeks. On a hot afternoon, she has walked several miles...