Hindi cinema’s radical mainstream
A new breed of spirited filmmakers have been chipping away of late at the shibboleths of mainstream Bollywood and using the medium to articulate social and political concerns of contemporary relevance. In their hands, Hindi cinema has acquired a new edge, a fresh vitality and a degree of relevance that it hasn't had for years.
Read more...
____________________________________________
Agenda for the government
THE Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has come back to power with a handsome verdict in its favour. The victory can be seen in many ways. It is a vote for stability, peace, balance, pluralism, secularism, genuine economic reforms. It is also a vote for a new generation of leaders who the Congress has been projecting.
Read more...
____________________________________________
Orissa’s women continue to die
SEVEN women die every day in Orissa due to pregnancy-related causes. The Union government's Janani Surakshya Yojana (JSY) is a scheme which seeks to prevent maternal mortality, but it is feeble. Despite an incentive of Rs 1,400 in rural areas and Rs1,000 in urban areas for an institutional delivery, more than 50 per cent of women in Orissa still deliver in their homes – a pointer to serious flaws in the programme.
Read more...
____________________________________________
Bollu the dog labourer
HOW does a dog serve its master? That's easy. A dog warns its master against thieves and alerts him about strangers entering the house. But two-year-old Bollu helps his ailing master, Mahalinga Naik, by working as a farm labourer. The dog collects arecanuts and coconuts and piles them up neatly in a spot.
Read more.
_____________________________________________
Are NGOs going bust?
THE downturn has seen banks go broke and markets crash. It has crippled giant corporations and knocked high net worth individuals. Software engineers are out of work and even fashion models can't seem to find assignments. Real estate magnates suddenly have more debts to pay than they ever told anyone about.
Read more...
_____________________________________________
RTI ownership runs across India
AS political parties began releasing their manifestoes for the coming general elections, the People's Action for Employment Guarantee and National Campaign for People's Right to Information organised a Jan Manch in Delhi on 22 March to ensure that politicians included the right to work and the right to information in their election agendas.
Read more...
_____________________________________________
‘NREGA is not artificial employment’
THE National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) took birth under a cloud of controversy. It was supported by activists and hated by establishment economists. Four years down the line NREGA has grown in strength. From 200 districts it covers the entire country.
Read more...
_____________________________________________
Rolling back the tsunami
WHEN the tsunami struck the coast of Tamil Nadu four years ago, the village of Poompuhar in Sirkali taluk of Nagapattinam district was one of the worst affected. As the first wave swamped this fishing village, built on the remains of the ancient Chola capital of Poompuhar, 128 bodies were washed ashore. Houses collapsed in the face of the ocean's mad wrath. Hapless villagers ran inland to save their lives.
Read More...
_____________________________________________
Is urban renewal just hype?
A national mission to make investments in 63 Indian cities over seven years has run half its course, but there are concerns about how projects are being chosen and whether all the money and effort will finally deliver an improved and inclusive urban environment.
Read More...
_____________________________________________
Learning to eat right
IT was a little past midnight, but Lilly Bai was up and about. For the next few hours she was busy making 15 dishes using yam. By noon she had taken her preparations to Thriuvananthapuram to present them in a traditional cookery competition at the Annam festival.
Read More...
_____________________________________________
Kashmiris want peace,development and an end to all conflict
PEOPLE came out and voted in record numbers in the recent Assembly elections in Kashmir, bringing a coalition of the National Conference and the Congress to power. The new Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah's own emphasis throughout the campaign was on the need for development and better governance.
Read More...
_____________________________________________
Kol tribals detect climate change
For as long as they can recall, Kol tribals in the Chitrakut district of Uttar Pradesh, depended on the forest for food and livelihood. The jungle was an old and trusted friend yielding nutritious mahua, anvla and chiraunji. Tribals could earn money by selling such forest produce and by plucking tendu leaves.
Read More...
_____________________________________________
Being Indian by Choice
CANDLELIGHT protests. Human chains for peace. Black armbands at Id prayers. Being Indian is a preference being exercised across the country. From Mumbai to the northeast, from the south to the north, there is support for the idea of a peaceful and democratic India where people from different religions and ethnic identities can coexist and prosper.
Read More...
_____________________________________________
Brickbats for ‘very busy’ NACO boss
OF the people now getting HIV in India an estimated 40 per cent are women. Of them an increasing number are women in monogamous relationships. With such figures to go by you would imagine that the health authorities in Delhi would have all the time in the world for a national meeting of the Positive Women's Network (PWN).
Read More.
_____________________________________________
India fails infant health again
IT seems India just can't save its little babies.Globally 9.7 million babies under five die and 2.1 million are in India alone. Around 27 million births occur in India every year, but 1.7 million infants die before one year and 1.08 million within one month.
Read More
_____________________________________________
Worth Trust’s able work force
THE factories look humdrum. There is the din of machines, the clink of tools and the clash of metal. Assembly lines have diligent workers poring over electronic meters for state electricity boards. Some are manufacturing nice garbage carts for municipalities. Others concentrate on high precision hydraulic equipment for the auto sector.
Read More..
