-kracktivist I was gang raped three years ago, when I was 17 years old.  My name and my photograph appear with this article..in 1983, in Manushi. I grew up in Bombay, and am at present studying in the USA. I am writing a thesis on rape and came home to do research a couple of weeks ago. Ever since that day three years ago, I have been intensely aware of the misconceptions...

-Economic and Political Weekly The recent debate on the acceptability of foreign direct investment in the retail sector in India has been mostly political. It is necessary to look into the pros and cons of FDI in retail from a purely economic point of view. This article identifi es the safeguards that should be undertaken before allowing giant multinationals to function in the country. Abhirup Sarkar (abhirup@isical.ac.in) is with the Indian Statistical...

-The Economic Times The government is likely to miserably fall short of its rural electrification target for the current fiscal as most villages that were to be covered under the scheme are located in difficult terrains, making it difficult for the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) to lay power lines there. Officials from Rural Electrification Corporation, the nodal agency for implementing the scheme, say many of the villages that were to be supplied...

-Reuters The amount of land needed to grow crops worldwide is at a peak and an area more than twice the size of France can return to nature by 2060 due to rising yields and slower population growth, a group of experts said on Monday. The report, conflicting with U.N. studies that say more cropland will be needed in coming decades to avert hunger and price spikes as the world population rises...

-The Hindu THE SUNDAY STORY An analysis of the output from 18 different global climate models indicates that India’s average annual surface air temperature could go up by between four degrees Celsius and seven degrees Celsius by the end of this century. The warning signs are already out there. Global air and ocean temperatures have risen in response to human-driven emissions, particularly of carbon dioxide. Oceans have become more acidic and the...