A Dalit father of two and his upper-caste lover were allegedly stoned to death in an Andhra village in a suspected honour killing case being dubbed the state’s first. The bodies of S. Sunkari Srinivas, 32, and Swapna Reddy, 22, bearing injury marks caused by stone hits, were found on the outskirts of Krishnajiwadi village in Nizamabad district last night, police said. The attackers were alleged relatives of Swapna, who could...

Why do poor people in rural areas vote when they know the whole system is against them? JEAN DRÈZE talks to some voters and observes the voting process during the recent Assembly elections in Latehar district, Jharkhand, and comes away with some pointers...  At one booth (Rankikalan, Booth No. 69) a BJP activist was trying to influence voters before they entered the booth, under the guise of helping them. Latehar...

India's Supreme Court has admitted a plea to end the life of a woman who has been in a vegetative state since 1973. Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse in Mumbai (Bombay), has been paralysed and considered "brain-dead" since she was attacked by a rapist in November 1973. The plea has been made by a journalist who has written a book on Ms Shanbaug. The court will examine if the plea is "akin...

The philosophy of self-aggrandisement defies social logic. Seven leading banks in the United States of America had last year incurred an aggregate loss of $82 billion; the chief executive officers of these banks nonetheless claimed and collected annual bonus to the extent of $38 billion. The economy might lie in ruins; that did not distract sharks from zooming in on their prey. Our corporate sector has shaped itself in the...