Reena, a Delhi University student from the northeast, was on a cyclerickshaw when four bikers brushed past, feeling up her thighs and snatching away Rs 15,000 that she was carrying. And after all the fight she put up she was literally dragged by the bikers for some distance she reached the police station only to see the constables smirk at her. They simply asked her to give a written complaint...

Every afternoon at about four, a slight woman named Runi slips out of the cramped, airless room that she shares with her husband and their sixteen children. She skirts the drainage ditch in front of the building, then walks toward the pile of hardened dung cakes that people in this slum on the edge of the northeastern Indian city of Patna use for fuel. Dressed in a bright-yellow sari shot...

Five years after Right to Information (RTI) Act came into existence, Information Commissioners feel that there should be more transparency in their appointments. A survey conducted by Parivartan , an NGO, among state and central Information Commissioners , the final appellate authorities for RTI Act grievances and complaints, has found that 66% of commissioners surveyed want a transparent selection process. The survey found that Information Commissioners had reservations about the...

A Vigyan Gram, or a science village, is to come up on the outskirts of Tripura's capital, complete with a museum, library, planetarium, botanical garden, bird sanctuary and other attractions to popularise science among the masses. The Vigyan Gram, to be modelled on the lines of science cities in various cities in India, would be set up at a cost of Rs.35 crore in western Tripura's Badharghat, a village on the...

Fighting the flood threat, North Indians may find it hard to believe that cumulative monsoon rainfall for the country is five per cent below the Long Period Average. It’s largely because the rain gods have not been particularly kind to the northeastern region. Most states in this region have received less than their usual share of rainfall this season, with Orissa and Jharkhand bearing the maximum brunt with 55% and 47%...