River Brahmaputra has eaten more than half of Asia's largest riverine island Majuli over the last 60 years. With land disappearing, there is progressive loss of the traditional means of livelihood of its people, leading to their displacement. Some lately are migrating even as far away as Andhra Pradesh, finds out Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty after a visit. Farmer Sridhar Bora stops mid-way as he brings down his axe on a tree...

-IANS   Breaking the stereotypes associated with madrassas, a 50-year-old Islamic seminary here teaches subjects like personality development and home science, runs an elaborate teacher training programme, has a higher girl enrolment ratio and has students who are no less active on social networking websites than their counterparts in the metros. Welcome to Jamiatul Falah, a madrassa in Bilariyaganj town of Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh's district that has kept pace with modern education. The...

-The Telegraph   Dispur this evening formally invited the anti-dam groups for talks on January 5 while issuing a separate public appeal asking them to withdraw their blockade of supplies to the Lower Subansiri hydel project, in a bid to end the standoff that began on December 16. CMO sources said home secretary G.D. Tripathi this evening issued the formal letters to Lakhimpur-based groups through the district administration and to the Guwahati-based organisations...

-The Business Standard Industrial town Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district on Monday observed Saheed Divas, marking the sixth anniversary of the violent clash between the tribals opposing land acquisition and the police forces that claimed 14 lives. The tribals were protesting the construction of boundary wall of the Tata Steel’s six million tonne steel project in the area when they clashed with the security forces. Those killed included 13 tribals and one...

The Centre's strategy to revamp the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) to counter the problem of Left-Wing Extremism seems to have run into a rough patch within the Planning Commission. Due to the slow movement in the commission's consideration of his proposal to execute the IAP by the block rather than by the district, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has written to its Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, asking him to...