-Outlook The faecal matter hits the rotary blades, politically-but we're still staring at a sanitation disaster "Indians defecate everywhere. They defecate mostly besides the railway tracks. But they also defecate on the beaches; they defecate on the hills; they defecate on the river banks; they defecate on the streets; they never look for cover." -V.S. Naipaul An Area of Darkness, 1964 Not...

-The Hindu Poverty takes a huge toll on the mind and on this World Mental Health Day, the focus should be on the well-being offered by community-based alternative approaches In recent years, the impact of mental illness on the social and economic health of nations has been well understood, placing mental ill health as one of the leading causes of disability adjusted life years (DALY) worldwide. There has been much focus on...

-Kafila.org This fact-finding exercise was coordinated by the CENTRE FOR POLICY ANALYSIS. Team members were the human rights activist and former civil servant Harsh Mander; former Director-General of the Border Security Force, E N Rammohan; Professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy of Jawaharlal Nehru University; National Integration Council member John Dayal; senior journalist Sukumar Muralidharan and CPA Director and senior editor Seema Mustafa. Introduction and Overview The first impression of the Muzaffarnagar countryside, now green...

-The Indian Express Bangalore: It was a Lok Sabha byelection fought and won by fulfilling a basic, daily need. In the Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituency in the suburbs of the city, winning Congress candidate D K Suresh offered the people a straightforward deal- bottled drinking water dispensed through innovative "water ATMs". Suresh, the brother of Congress leader D K Shivakumar, set up 33 water ATMs, dispensing kiosks attached to reserve...

-PTI Chennai: Flaying the Centre for "unilaterally" and "hastily" promulgating the National Food Security Ordinance 2013, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Saturday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to replace the ordinance with a Bill which addresses the state's concerns. "The union Government has unilaterally and hastily promulgated the National Food Security Ordinance, 2013. Though the Ordinance claims to provide food security to all, unfortunately, contrary to such a claim, there...