A courier company in Mumbai shows the way in providing employment for the hearing impaired. IN the milling crowds of Mumbai, they stand apart with their orange T-shirts printed with the name Mirakle Couriers. Every day, during the busy hours of the working week, one sees them on the sidewalks, in public transport and elsewhere with large black bags slung on their shoulders. It would not be enough to say...

The key to the United Progressive Alliance’s return to power in 2009 lay in its promise of “inclusive growth” centred on the aam aadmi. On top of the launching of the Mahatma Ga­ndhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), this gave the UPA immeasurably greater appeal and legitimacy than its rivals. But it also entailed obligations to implement other rights-based programmes, on food security, education and healthcare, am­ong others. The National...

The Indian Association for Women's Studies (IAWS) has demanded immediate withdrawal of the First Information Report (FIR) lodged against Ilina Sen, professor and wife of Human Rights activist Binayak Sen, by the Nagpur Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) at Sewagram in district Wardha on January 24. In an open letter to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday, the IAWS protested against the FIR and alleged that the Nagpur ATS had launched a...

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today notified veterinary and border authorities in Asia of a major outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the Republic of Korea, urging them to be on the look-out for livestock showing signs of infection by the highly contagious animal disease. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) affects cloven-hoofed animals, including cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, causing high fever. It is characteristic by lesions in animals' mouths and...

Some of India's most prominent artists including Sharmila Tagore, Naseeruddin Shah, Aparna Sen, Mahesh Bhatt, Rahul Bose and others have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh protesting against the imprisonment of Human Rights activist Binayak Sen. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on sedition charges by the Additional District and Sessions Court at Raipur last month. 61-year-old Sen, a paediatrician by profession, was arrested in May 2007 in Bilaspur on...