-CNN-IBN Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has condemned the anti-Hindi agitation cartoon and demanded its immediate removal, saying that projecting the anti-Hindi agitation as "violence" is simply unacceptable. She also said that the cartoon suggesting that Tamil students did not understand English hurt Tamil sentiment. There has been a row in Tamil Nadu against a cartoon on the anti-Hindi agitation of 1965, featured in the NCERT textbooks. "Projecting anti-Hindi agitation as...

A top dalit panel has asked the Centre to extend reservation in promotions to OBCs, adding a twist to the controversy over 'promotion quota' simmering since the Supreme Court quashed the Uttar Pradesh law last month.  In a letter, the National Commission for SCs (NCSC) said, "The Commission feels the benefit of reservation in promotion should also be extended to OBCs as per Article 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution."  It said...

Concern for public health goes up in smoke   India's leading cigarette manufacturer, ITC Ltd, made financial contributions of Rs. 6.78 crore in the last two years to all major political parties in the country, causing public health activists here to question the possible interference of tobacco companies “in the Central government's efforts to bring in tougher anti-tobacco laws in the country.” Figures disclosed by ITC Ltd — and released recently by activists...

Koli people struggle for their hearths and homes as politico-businessman lobby mows down homes for redevelopment project   Ugly tidings were round the bend for Kalpesh Shivkar when a registered letter arrived from Pilot Constructions Pvt. Ltd. in March 2010 requesting him to vacate his house in the interests of redevelopment. This was followed by an impassive notice issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation pasted on his door, directing the Shivkar family to...

Gosikhurd was sanctioned in 1983 and meant to irrigate 2.5 lakh hectares in Vidarbha As Manikrao Gedam sits outside his three-room house, he wonders how he has benefited by giving up his 10 acres for the Gosikhurd irrigation project at Bhandara in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region. For that matter, he wonders what anyone has gained from it. Today, he has nothing else, but the house in a resettlement colony; his sons are unemployed; and...