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...

While many U.S. residents prepare for their annual Thanksgiving feast Thursday, one in six are at risk of hunger – including a quarter of all children in the country. Globally, 925 million people, or a little less than 15 percent of the world population, is undernourished. Ironically, Washington's efforts to alleviate hunger abroad may be more successful than at home, analysts say. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's estimate last week that 49...

Deadlock continues in Dalits temple entry issue at Uthamapalayam village in Tirupur district as the caste Hindus, who are in a sizable number in the village, continued to avoid several round of talks chaired by Dharapuram RDO as they felt it as a disgrace to allow Dalits to sit equally with them. Hence, tension prevails in the village. M Thangavel, state organiser for Avinashi-based Vizhuthugal, an NGO working for the rights of...

The SKS IPO and the Andhra Pradesh ordinance have suddenly changed everything. Will it be the death knell or will it usher in a reformed and healthy industry? There are three basic facts about micro-finance in India. First, most of what is described as micro-finance industry is actually micro-loans. There is hardly any provision of micro-savings, micro-investments, micro-insurance or micro-pensions. This is mostly because of regulatory reasons, i.e. accepting money...

The recent crisis in the micro-finance industry, brought about by some incidents in Andhra Pradesh, has led to the development of a new concept in the Indian thinking on development — that of “responsible finance”. Responsible finance is supposed to mean financial activities by companies that make just about enough returns to stay in business and charge rates of interest on loans to the poor that are only marginally higher than what...