-The Hindu   National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday opposed the bail plea of 2008 Malegaon blasts accused Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur on the grounds that “there is serious incriminating evidence against her.” “There are reasonable grounds prima facie to believe that she is guilty of the offences which are levelled against her as contemplated under section 21(4) of MCOC [Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime] Act,” the NIA said in its reply filed before...

-The Hindu   Describing most of the anti-corruption movements in the country as right-wing and majoritarian in nature, writer Arundhati Roy on Saturday said the Jan Lokpal Bill, which she said nobody had read, was totally an unGandhian piece of legislation. She alleged that it would concentrate power in the hands of a few. Ms. Roy, who was here in connection with the release of a Tamil translation of her work Broken Republic...

One in 20 people aged 15-64 years, or 200 million are using illicit drugs worldwide annually. A global study on illicit drug use, to be published in the medical journal " Lancet" on Friday, says there are 125-203 million cannabis, 14-56 million amphetamine, 14-21 million cocaine and 12-21 million opioid users. In south and south-east Asia, an estimated 54 lakh people use cannabis, 28 lakh opioid and another four lakh cocaine. According to...

The lone Indian activist on the 2011 TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, Aruna Roy has been more successful than most,  when it comes to getting the government’s attention. The Chennai-born former bureaucrat who was an instrumental force behind the revolutionary Right to Information Act has also been credited by the government for “incorporating strong citizen entitlements” in the ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). A constant...

-ANI Humanity, harmony, good governance are ideals a democratic nation aspires to. As the world's largest democracy, India is no exception. Her lawmakers and administrators, often the brightest of her citizens, vow to serve the people and govern them with integrity. These lofty ideals, hever, hold no ground in the face of the harsh pressures of conflict, now spreading rapidly across the country. I searched for and interviewed every single individual of a...