It has to be but a means to development, not an end in itself Is India doing marvellously well, or is it failing terribly? Depending on whom you speak to, you could pick up either of those answers with some frequency. One story, very popular among a minority but a large enough group—of Indians who are doing very well (and among the media that cater largely to them)—runs something like...

Communal violence had erupted in the area over a piece of disputed land Despite the initiation of an artificial “peace process” in the aftermath of September's horrific violence, the people in this nondescript town, which grabbed the headlines for the wrong reasons, seem to have lost confidence in the neutrality of the administration. Victims are yet to come to terms with the mishandling of the situation and, what they claim, the...

-The Indian Express   While Jethava’s killing hit the headlines, many others are nursing their wounds The murder of RTI activist Nadeem Saiyed in Ahmedabad on SaTurday is only one among several incidents where those seeking to expose corruption have been targeted. “The Gujarat government has failed to protect rights of RTI activists,” says Bhikhu Jethava, father of Amit Jethava, an RTI activist who was shot dead outside the Gujarat High Court in 2010. Bhikhu...

-The Telegraph   Indian plant biologists have sequenced the full genome of pigeonpea, arming themselves with information that they say will help speed up the development of improved pigeonpea varieties and boost yields of India’s most popular pulse. A consortium of scientists from the Indian Council of AgriculTural Research and several academic institutions has identified 47,004 genes that code for proteins in the pigeonpea (arhar or Tur), a grain legume that is consumed...

To understand the role which the media should be playing in India we have to first understand the historical context. India is presently passing through a transitional period in its history: a transition from a feudal agriculTural society to a modern industrial society. This is a very painful and agonising period. The old feudal society is being uprooted and torn apart; but the new, modern, industrial society has not yet been...