The power game
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have become increasingly influential in the past 50 years. Awareness of human rights and social and …
Ways to budge Karzai
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The house that Digvijay built
Governments and the masses have very rarely worked together successfully in modern India. In Madhya Pradesh, chief minister Digvijay Singh has …
Elementary failure
Since the Right To Education Act came into force on April 1, 2010, India has been witnessing an experiment that involves parents in enforcing a …
Saga of two villages
Sukhomajri was a dirt-poor village in Haryana. It started pulling itself out of its hole in the late 1970s, making a dizzying ascent to …
The panchayat outrage
It was a vote for self-governance, not self-determination. No panchayat election in the country ever created as much hype as that of Jammu and …
Hiware Bazar - A village with 54 millionaires
Hiware Bazar, a village in Maharashtra's drought-prone Ahmednagar district, was sliding into an abyss after degrading its environment. But in …
Wings to soar high
A counselling initiative in Madhya Pradesh identifies interests of tribal students and facilitates their admission to institutes of higher education
Boss, the real beehive!
Rahul Gandhi’s idea of governance needs fresh focus. How about more autonomy to nearly 240,000 panchayats?
Thumb press
Chhattisgarh’s community news service on mobile phone helps tribal people find voice
Reveal or go to jail
New Collection of Statistics Act comes into force. Makes furnishing information mandatory
Punjab’s panchayat flip-flop
State considers reverting to direct polls, court raps it for taking away right to recall sarpanch
Taking the lead
India's chief ministers are beginning to take note of environmental problems. But just about. The Centre for Science and Environment conducted a …
Does civil society activism fit in with electoral politics?
Many activists took part in the recent elections. Has their participation in electoral politics exposed civil society activism to state repression?
‘Our subscribers don’t miss newspapers’
Journalist-turned-media entrepreneur Niraj NaiK runs Breaking News on Mobile in Goa. It is a unique state-level paid SMS news service and is …
Closed systems, open minds
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has been doing research on health and environment in the public interest. But most government …
The national local elections
Bangladesh loses an opportunity to revive its most important local government—upazilla parishad—as competing national parties turn …
Brazilian lessons for Modi
Dilma Rousseff's re-election as president is a lesson on facing development challenges in an unequal economy
Millionaire mukhiyas
Money pumped in development schemes in Bihar is giving rise to a new breed of village heads, flush with money and flexing muscles
Time to reveal
Cabinet clears policy that makes it mandatory for departments to share data; civil society sceptical
The curious case of panchayats in Delhi
The Nagar Swaraj Bill will usher in decentralised governance in the city state, but what happened to rural panchayats?
Who dropped MESA?
Government clueless about the Bill it introduced 12 years ago to govern urban areas in tribal regions. Constitutional crisis follows
Bank’s first contest
Developing countries challenge US monopoly by putting up candidates for World Bank’s presidency
Machiavellian moves
Rajasthan's decision to bar illiterate people from contesting elections to panchayats is one more example of a state government dominating …
Where are rural courts?
The Gram Nyayalaya Act was passed in 2008 to make the judicial process participatory, inexpensive and accessible to rural India. But rural courts …