India Together

GM CROPS Where is the science? The debate in GM plants is deeply suffused by vested interests. In addition to impeding research, companies also exert their influence on review and approval, writes Sujatha Byravan.

Incredible India, its culture, its heritage, the people and more!

NOBEL FOR LIN OSTROM Are Indian policy makers listening? Popular ideas of development and management of common resources should be revisited in light of this year's Economics Nobel Prize, given to Prof. Elinor Ostrom, writes Prakash Kashwan.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Varanasi weavers get GI protection The country's latest Geographical Indication certificate offers some new hope - of putting the sheen and colour back in a vital piece of Indian heritage, and livelihoods linked to it. Puja Awasthi reports.

OPINION 1984 The continuous repetition of 1984 style violence also says something very unflattering about the man on the street, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

MEDIA AND ELECTIONS The medium, message and money The Assembly elections saw the culture of 'coverage packages' explode across Maharashtra. In many cases, a candidate just had to pay for almost any coverage at all. P Sainath reports.

RURAL EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT In TN, poor parents pushing children into English schools Recognising that government schools with their Tamil medium education do nothing to ensure a good career path or ensure employment, parents are stretching themselves to make the shift in rural Tamilnadu. ...

DISPLACED BY THE DAM A legacy of loss It is not only those whose villages have been submerged who have suffered, but hundreds of families have lost land to the building of Sardar Sarovar itself. Neeta Deshpande reports.

GLOBAL CLIMATE Need to strengthen climate diplomacy India is well on its way to a low-carbon economic future, but its global image suffers because we lack the public discourse to bolster our argument, unlike China and the Western countries, writes Darryl D'Monte.

DISPLACED BY THE DAM Living on the edge In the shadow of India's most controversial dam, men and women struggle to live with dignity. The first in a series on uprootment and survival in the Narmada valley by Neeta Deshpande.

EYES ON THE FORESTS A miner's shortcut to green clearance goes awry A Jindal group-Government of Tamilnadu firm attempted to get forest clearance for mining in the Eastern Ghats forests of TN. Both the Ministry of Environment and a Supreme Court monitoring committee rejected clearance. ...

RIVER BASIN STUDIES The 'power' to protect rivers The Electricity Act, 2003 requires each hydel project to be considered in light of other projects in the same river basin, but investigation of one project shows that this is not really enforced, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

ANTI-NAXAL OPERATIONS A job for an infantryman At best the central police and paramilitary can hold an area once it is taken back, but clearing it and handing it over to them can only be done by the Army, writes Firdaus Ahmed.