Inefficiency, the global financial meltdown and rising food prices have conspired to reverse progress made on poverty and hunger Head out of Delhi, across the fetid Yamuna river, with the tourist sites behind you and the northern Indian plains in front of you. Go past the new, luxury flats built for the Commonwealth Games, turn right and follow the lines of the new metro and then plunge left, avoiding the chaotic...

The city's famous potters' colony of Kumartuli is facing an acute shortage of hands to sculpt Durga Puja idols. Behind this labour scarcity is an unlikely culprit - the rural jobs scheme which has induced hundreds to stay back in their villages. Costs of organising Durga Puja have gone up this year as more has to be shelled out on labour and raw material - in some cases jumping almost 50...

Fresh reports of the possibility of a breach in the Tajewala barrage have created panic among the people in the low-lying areas. If there is a breach in the barrage then the national capital could face another serious flood-like situation. The reports of a possible breach have come after more than 2.5 lakh cusecs of water had been released from the Hathnikund Barrage in Haryana on Monday, which resulted in many...

Owing to floods and incessant rains in northern India's Haryana, crops have been badly affected due to which the prices of the vegetables have gone up. Though the floods have receded in some parts of the area but large swathes of crops have been washed away. The wholesale rate for tomato has gone as high as Rs 40/kg, while the retail rate in some markets has reached Rs 60/kg. "Due to incessant rain...

Unfortunate though it may seem, many Indians only identify with Ladakh because of the popularity of Three Idiots and the progressive school there which Aamir Khan has now gone to assist. We tend to forget that it is part of Jammu and Kashmir because the unrest in the valley obscures everything else. Ladakh is often described as a cold desert, with scanty rainfall, which is why Leh and its environs were...