After 16 days of intensive Statewide campaigning and 47 days of dharna, thousands of workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Rajasthan scored a significant victory. Led by the Suchana Evum Rozgar Ka Abhiyan, they entered into an agreement with the State government under which they would be entitled to the prevailing minimum wage for their day's work. Describing this outcome as “historic,” social activist...

'Journalists are only expected to be witnesses.'' While the 2G spectrum scandal has unfolded, it has exposed the involvement of a number of individuals, offices and institutions in different ways in it. Irregularities of such massive proportions could not been planned and resorted to by a minister and some bureaucrats. The prime minister was told by the supreme court to explain his delay in acting on a request for action against the...

Frustrated by the government's attitude to disability, an advocacy movement has sprung up in Madhya Pradesh, central India, fighting for the universal right of all children to attend school 'What are friends for? You listen for us and we'll see for you." The black-and-white photograph beneath the words shows a smiling boy with his arm around his partially sighted classmate. It encapsulates the inclusive education ideal – all children of all...

A lot has been said and written about the visit of Barack Obama, the President of USA to India. The corporate media was in the usual over-enthusiastic drive to bring to its readers and viewers all minute details about his visit from where he stayed and what he ate to how many warships, planes and cars accompanied him and how a whopping $200 million was spent per day for the...

Editorial space being sold daily: Nayar Favours abolition of contract system “Newspapers becoming pro-establishment” Former Member of Parliament and veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar on Tuesday called for the setting up of a press commission to go into issues such as “paid news.” Noting that the last time a press commission was set up was in 1977, he said it was time for a fresh one in the light of developments over the past three...