Pushing to privatise water
A noteworthy shift in the new Draft Water Policy is the clear preference of the Government to privatise the water sector. This goes against all the evidence so far, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

Rights Act, not working right
There is wide-spread failure in safeguarding the rights of forest communities protected under the Forest Rights Act. State and Central Governments are complicit in diluting it. Tushar Dash reports.

TB: A dangerous comeback
It is frightening to think of how the new drug resistant strain of tuberculosis is going to spread in crowded, unhygienic, urban India. Doctors are worried. Ramesh Menon reports.

The democratisation of media
Can technology restore the balance between people in their conversations about public issues? And can this help foster a better and more inclusive democracy, asks Shubhranshu Choudhary.

The key to the handloom crisis
The principal contribution of the Malkha initiative is in its idea of rooting cotton handloom production in the rural economy, much against the trend in urban discourses. Neeta Deshpande reports.

Tips for change
Can we tap into the power of crowds and popular fashion to address persistent poverty? And what would such an effort look like, wonders Gijs Spoor.

Green tribunal: First months
The first set of hearings winds its way through the newly established environment tribunal, against the backdrop of a government push to speed up industrialisation in forest areas. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Amartya Sen: A life re-examined
Suman Ghosh's documentary about the Nobel Laureate has not found its way to many screens yet. Nonetheless, it is a noteworthy effort to bring the economist a little closer to the people. Shoma Chatterji reviews the film.

The Age of misjudgment
The case of the Army Chief's true age is only seemingly one of an individual's besmirched honour. It is instead one in civil-military relations, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

Who profits? Who pays?
While government and other sector actors are on the alert to address the power crisis, some find a business opportunity in it. Meanwhile, attention to rural supply continues to be low, write Sreekumar N and Shantanu Dixit.

A Prime Minister in peril
Why has this honest, intelligent, experienced man, whose appointment as prime minister in 2004 was so widely welcomed, been such a disappointment in office, asks Ramachandra Guha

Lokpal amendments in the LS
There are wide differences between the various parties on various provisions of the Lokpal Bill. And India Against Corruption wants its own amendments too.

Building the Transit Metropolis
As the most significant region yet to be urbanised, India presents a unique opportunity for capturing impacts of urbanisation on the spatial dimension, writes Madhav Pai.

Welcome, foreign investors
In search of new funds to keep the growth story alive, the Centre opens the doors to foreign investment a little further.

Adding millets to the basket
To improve food security and to bring extensive lands now left fallow into cultivation again, the government must support millets just as it supports rice and wheat. Karuna M reports.

Back to the family
Grounded in its feminist views, Praajak works with runaway boys and young men, to give them livelihood options and help them reunite with their families. Shoma Chatterji reports.

Should defence bureaucracy specialise?
Should bureaucrats working in the national security bureaucracy have a working knowledge of the defence sector, or would that just foster group-think? Firdaus Ahmed explores the question.

Growing business at the bottom of the pyramid
It is tempting to take a rosy-eyed view of the future of successful entrepreneurship at the bottom of the pyramid. But what is the picture really?

Degrading democracy
The relationship between the two major parties in Parliament has broken down completely. For this both parties are responsible, writes Ramachandra Guha.

Shroud of impunity
More than the revocation of the AFSPA from a few areas, what is crucial is ending the culture of impunity and the pattern of lawlessness it has spawned. Freny Manecksha reports.

Some states fight the trend
Five States did manage a significant decline in the average number of farm suicides between 2003 and 2010. However, more States have reported increases over the same period, reports P Sainath.

Where woodcraft is a way of life
Art blends with life through the tradition of woodcraft in Etikoppaka, but the need to sustain livelihoods is ever-present. Neeta Deshpande reports.

Who will bell the media cat?
If issues concerning media standards and ethics are not swept under the carpet as in the past, some good may result from the recent storm over Justice Katju.s observations, writes Ammu Joseph.

Oil subsidy is all gas
Far from subsidising the public, governments made the aam admi bear a substantial part of their expenditure on the production and sale of fuels, writes Kannan Kasturi.

The people's energy
When nuclear companies are unwilling to stake their financial health on the safety of a reactor, how can the Government ask local residents to risk their lives, ask M V Ramana and Suvrat Raju.

Third time around the law
Construction of a project that requires environmental, coastal zone and forest permissions cannot begin until all of these are secured. Or can it? Kanchi Kohli reports.

Innovation in India
The inability of India to adequately provide for its own population no longer reflects a failure of implementation, but rather of a failure of innovation, writes Aditya Dev Sood.

The Superbugs are here, Part III
The Government's response to the emergence of Superbugs should be urgent and specific, but instead it has been living in denial even as the threat multiplies, writes Ramesh Menon.