Bihar has been in the news recently for recording an average growth rate of 11.3 per cent for the period between 2004 and 2009. Much has been written about the quality of governance and the improved state of roads. This is indeed commendable, and no mean achievement, for a State that had virtually become a “development outcast”. I was pleasantly surprised to note on a recent trip to Bihar the...

Despite criticism by civil society and the free press, the state is continuing its violent campaigns against Maoists unchecked Alongside the great internet firewall of China, the vicious paranoia of Burma's ruling junta, and the lists of murdered journalists in Sri Lanka, India appears as a beacon of free speech and open-minded self-criticism. And yet, for all the vociferous passion of its journalists and activists in calling the powerful to account,...

The Maharashtra government will amend its Development Control Rules, in a bid to contain criminalisation of realty. It also plans to strictly implement the provisions of Indian Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code to stem the growing nexus between builders and gangsters and easy flow of black money into the sector. "If builders are found guilty, they will be blacklisted. They will be debarred from any contract from the government or...

While Punjab remains, in popular perception, the land of plenty, a group of economists at Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) has revealed that the picture isn't rosy at all — in fact it's grim. Rural indebtedness has touched Rs 35,000 crore and, worse, 3,000 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide in the last eight years. Economists are also relating the suicides with high illiteracy among the poor farmers and say Punjab needs...

Civil society organisations have demanded the speedy passage and implementation of the proposed National Health Bill, 2009, but with certain changes that ensure health as a universal entitlement to all sections of society. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, sought a National Health Act to ensure equitable distribution of medical facilities across the population. “The National Health Act should be on the lines of the Right to...