Dr. Subba Reddy, my classmate at the medical college, practises in a village in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh. A decade ago, a patient came to him for treatment of hydrocele. After examination, Dr. Reddy suggested surgery costing Rs. 500. The patient asked Dr. Reddy to refer him to a bigger hospital in a city. Dr. Reddy suggested a city hospital. After a few days, he received Rs.1,000 from the...

Delayed monsoon rains in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are expected to impact the sowing of key crops such as cotton, groundnut, soybean, moong, urad, tur, seasum and potato. Farmers who had prepared the land in the hope of rains by June 15 are worried. According to the India Meteorological Department , monsoon is likely to remain subdued over the three states. AB Majumdar, deputy director general meteorology, Pune, said, "Rainfall will...

-The Telegraph   The flow of farmers to fill up forms for land return in Singur thinned to a trickle today, the “lack of hurry” attributed to yesterday’s Supreme Court stay on distribution of plots. Pulak Sarkar, the block development officer (BDO) of Singur, said only 106 forms were submitted between 10 am and 7pm today. “Yesterday, we had received 250 forms. Altogether, 1,590 forms have been submitted since Sunday,” he said. The 15...

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will meet Anna Hazare on Saturday, citing a “packed prior schedule” to turn down his request for an appointment today. The anti-graft activist has been parleying with leaders of major political parties in the capital for the past two days and met Bihar rivals Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad. Sources said despite the Congress Working Committee in its meeting last week coming down strongly on Hazare and his...

Nobody sheds a tear when the police harass ordinary citizens. But with the rich and powerful under the corruption scanner, the Prime Minister now fears a police state. The Prime Minister and his advisors just don't get it. At a time when the public is looking for an end to the loot of public money, the last thing they want to hear from their government is a bunch of excuses and...