Agrarian distress and growing awareness among farmers, tired of poll-time rhetoric and freebies, may make it tougher for political parties to woo this large electorate with worn-out promises in the upcoming assembly polls.  Ahead of elections in five states, including in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous and politically-critical state, many farmers say they are ready to pay market rates for power and other inputs provided there is reliable supply.  Swarn Singh,...

Most of the respondents in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala prefer an effective PDS to cash transfer. THE survey of the public distribution system (PDS) in nine States, of which I was a part in Himachal Pradesh (Sirmaur district), Uttar Pradesh (Jaunpur district) and Kerala (Wayanad district), came as an eye-opener to me on many counts. If Himachal Pradesh stood out for the innocence of its people, Uttar Pradesh...

Dumps trickle into the rivers and occasionally collapse, flooding homes and fields with muddy water The reddish hills dot large tracts of the Goan landscape—mounds of waste soil and other debris that have been left behind after iron ore was dug out from some 95 mines. Accumulating since the 1960s, the dumps, as they are known, are estimated at 750 million tonnes (mt) and consist of top soil, mud and iron...

Remember the over 100 farmhouse plots allotted in Noida measuring at least 10,000 sq m each without an auction or a draw of lots, including two to Supreme Court advocate Shanti Bhushan and his son Jayant Bhushan? An audit has now found that not only was there no transparency in the allotment of these plots — 101 in all — but that the Noida Authority had fixed a very low rate,...

Our democracy is creaking, but it works—nominally at least. What it needs is not dilution, but deepening. When “Too Much Democracy” Works     Pressure in Parliament pushes PM Manmohan Singh to secure the resignation of telecom minister A. Raja in the 2G affair     The angst and trials of tribals in the Maoist bastion of Dantewada is sensed in Delhi after the media highlights their plight     People power at the sites of...