We must not allow the pain and suffering of the Sikh victims to be transformed into a political instrument to mute calls for justice for the ‘other' victims of similarly orchestrated massacres. More than a quarter century on, not much remains of ‘1984' — shorthand for one of the largest pogroms in India's Postcolonial history when thousands of Sikhs were massacred in retribution for Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination — in...

In Gorakhpur, thousands have become a burden on their poor families Lack of rehabilitation facilities for thousands of children, disabled here after a Japanese encephalitis attack, has made life a burden for them. Already reeling under acute poverty, these children are now an economic burden on their families. The monthly allowance given by the Uttar Pradesh government to the disabled in 2005-06 was abruptly discontinued. “Life is worse than hell for my...

-PTI IT major Wipro's chairman Azim Premji today said "complete absence of decision making" in the government is the biggest concern for the country and warned that growth would suffer if prompt corrective action is not taken. "I think the biggest concerns are governance issues... complete absence of decision-making among leaders in the government...", he said when asked what he thought was the "biggest concern for the country today". If prompt corrective action...

Unsafe. Risky. Dangerous. No adjective may seem vile enough for Ranchi that has topped the district crime chart in Jharkhand with the highest number of murders, rapes and abductions to its credit. According to the 2010 statistics released recently by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), as many as 183 persons were killed, 92 raped and 128 kidnapped in Ranchi last year. Though the police brass find solace in the fact that...

Climate change negotiations are with us again, this time in Durban following the high-level meetings in Cancun (2010) and Copenhagen (2009). The aim is to agree on a regime to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (particularly CO2) Post-2012, when the present commitments under the Kyoto Protocol run out. Climate change and global warming are important issues for India. Agriculture, which provides a livelihood for two-thirds of our population, is heavily dependent on...