The city has come to be known as the Detroit of India for its large concentration of automakers, but a series of labour disputes have rocked it, putting a question mark over industrial peace. Car markers such as Hyundai Motor India, German luxury car maker BMW and Ford Motor India besides Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia India have set up their plants on the city outskirts employing more than 23,000 people. As...

Ten years, 125 more heads. Hardly anything to write home about in these times of billion-plus populations, but anthropologists aren’t complaining. Not when the last headcount showed 240 and the people in question are a threatened tribe — the Jarawas. The latest report by the Andaman Adim Janjati Vikash Samity (AAJVS), a government-affiliated autonomous agency headed by the Union territory’s lieutenant governor, shows the Jarawas now number 365 — 125 more since...

Last month, leaders from 185 countries met in New York to take stock of progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) — which include, among other things, eradicating poverty and hunger, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health — that were set in 2000 by the United Nations. The aim was to achieve these goals by 2015. But 10 years down the line, the world is way behind targets in achieving...

If Haryana were a country, it would be fifth on the gold medal winners’ list at Delhi 2010 — after Australia, England, Canada and India-minus-Haryana. Fifteen of India’s 38 gold at the Commonwealth Games — nearly 40 per cent of the country’s best-ever haul — have been won by athletes from Haryana. For perspective, Haryana has 2 per cent of the country’s population and occupies 1.37 per cent of its land...

Two people committed suicide Monday in Andhra Pradesh after microfinance companies allegedly harassed them for non-repayment of loans. Opposition parties have urged the government to take action against the firms while a rights panel has asked police to submit the reports on suicides. While an auto driver committed suicide in Warangal district, a woman ended her life in East Godavari district. Another woman attempted suicide by consuming pesticides in Karimnagar district...