India Together

MILITARY DOCTRINE Much hullaballoo, little cause Of course the military should be prepared for conflict. However, whether to engage in such conflict, and how, is a decision for the civilian leadership, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

MP HIGH COURT VERDICT Equal compensation for equal loss The Madhya Pradesh High Court has ruled that excluding canal oustees from the R&R policy applicable to its dam projects is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

DISASTER RELIEF IN KARNATAKA Everybody loves a good flood Sloppy and biased surveys of damaged houses and paltry compensation have made the flood victims in Koppal and Bellary districts run from pillar to post to get what is rightfully theirs, writes Savita Hiremath.

PUBLIC HEARINGS Delhi HC overturns environmental mockery The spirit of a public hearing must be respected, says a recent verdict from the Delhi High Court, refusing to accept the literal interpretations of the rules which the environment appellate authority used. Kanchi Kohli reports.

MEDICINE Predictive testing: A Pandora's box Once a medical approach is accepted, its use tends to spread across the population and income groups. We therefore need to start preparing for the advance of personalised medicine, writes Sujatha Byravan

SMALL TOWNS Growing without a plan Rajnandgaon's location along a national highway has helped it to grow. It is also not cash-strapped. But its problem is the absence of good governance, writes Kalpana Sharma.

KARNATAKA: SECOND CRISIS AFTER FIRST Devastated by floods, but drowned by corruption North Karnataka's flood victims feel that it was relatively easier to run away from raging waters than dealing now with a corrupt bureaucracy and eking out a livelihood fraught with imponderables. ...

MEDIA AND ELECTIONS The "era of Ashok" - a new era for 'news'? The huge mismatch between the Chief Minister's stated accounts and the dozens of full pages of 'news' will surely re-stoke the debate over what has now come to be called 'paid news,' writes P Sainath.

THE NUCLEAR ESTABLISHMENT Our atom state The atomic energy programme is an economic failure as well as an environmental disaster. Moreover, by its very functioning, the AEC has undermined the democratic ideals of the nation, writes Ramachandra Guha.

OPINION/TIGER CONSERVATION India's tiger reserves are maternity wards Both for vast array of species it shields and the sustainability of the ecosystems it inhabits, the tiger is the sentinel of the ecological destiny of the whole Indian subcontinent. ...

POVERTY IN ORISSA Starvation deaths continue, as officials demur BPL politics at the central level is skewed, and quotas are fixed for every state, regardless of the actual number of people who need to be protected. Pradeep Baisakh reports on one family's near-total loss.

OPINION The Indian mercantilist empire The pattern of development in India seems ominously like England in the nineteenth century. Are Indian companies the vanguard of a 21st century Indian imperialism, ask Rajesh Kasturirangan.

FILM REVIEW A delightful celluloid recreation Harishchandrachi Factory is a wonderful account that traces the man who made history as much as the first film he made, marking a milestone forever. Shoma Chatterji reviews the film.

DISPLACED BY THE DAM The futility of hope When Madubhai first heard that a big dam 150 km away would control the waters of the river he revered, he didn't believe the news. He never knew that its waters would one day drown his little world. Neeta Deshpande reports.