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Assembly elections 2018: Human trafficking victims feel left out

“We are nobody’s concern. We are not part of any election manifesto, or any state government,” says 28-year-old Farah from Mahasamund district, Chhattisgarh. Five years ago, Farah was rescued by an anti-human trafficking NGO in M

Bridges to nowhere

September 4, 2018. Kolkata. It’s quarter to five in the evening. The shanty dwellers in Majerhat felt the earth shake.   A loud crash, dust rising from rubble and crumbling concrete, water splashing. The Majerh

Ageing dams or ticking time bombs?

As of 2018, India has 209 dams that are a century old or more. Raging debates have also contested how a few of these British-built dams have surpassed their life span by developing leaks and fissures. Case in point, the 123-year-old Mullaperiyar

Wait and watch

The dates for the polls in five states have been announced: Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram will have new governments by the end of the year. A few short months thereafter, the parliamentary elections will throw th

The killer instinct

Hitlerkiller, a sniper, has landed in Georgopol, a city with many disused brick buildings and container depots hugging a bay in a U-shape. To survive for the next thirty minutes in the unknown land, he needs to find weapons, a motorcycle and a f

Vibrant Gujarat 2019 to go beyond investments; focus on trade, exports

Vibrant Gujarat, the biannual gathering organised by Gujarat, will go beyond pitching for investments and will provide a forum to explore trade and export opportunities. The ninth edition of the event will take place on January 18-20 at Gandhinaga

Decentralising waste management is the way forward

Mumbai generates 8,780 metric tonnes of waste daily, out of which approximately 3,000 metric tonnes is wet waste. Only 100-150 metric tonnes per day (MTPD) is treated to localised composting and biogas generation. The civic body, Municipal Corpora

Why RBI should have operational independence

The recent uproar in the country regarding the finance ministry apparently coercing the RBI in doing things it is unwilling to do has spiked to such heights that the RBI deputy governor valiantly warned the government that it might “incur th

Unsafe abortion is a leading cause of maternal death: Study

Unsafe abortion is the third leading cause of maternal mortality in India, and around eight women die from causes related to unsafe abortion each day, according to a report by the Guttmacher Institute, International Institute of Population Science

Making sense of Modi’s counter-intuitive economics

Dhiraj Nayyar’s book, Modi and Markets: Arguments for Transformation (published in October by Westland) came a bit too early. The title would have made for seductive reading had it coincided with RBI deputy governor Viral Acharya’s r

A gender perspective on migration

Khohar, a village located in Alwar district of Rajasthan, nestled in the foothills of Aravalis, is home to 154 families, most of whom are farmers by profession. The village has a large adult population with 65 percent over the age of 18. The vil

For the sunset years

The New Pension Scheme (NPS), the government of India’s flagship pension scheme, has been subject to a number of important reforms in recent times. This is a welcome change from the norm wherein the government’s and the regulators&rs

Who will pay the price of overpopulation?

Olden days of civilisation experienced famines and natural disasters that caused human misery. While human population was limited, natural habitats were undisturbed and abundant; so calamities of nature were absorbed without any serious cons

Schooling change

Jhunjhunu, in northern Rajasthan, is known for its grand havelis and the frescoes on their walls. But they weren’t on prime minister Narendra Modi’s mind when he spoke of the desert town in his Mann Ki Baat radio talk of March 2018.

The road ahead

A fter mixed response from the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) and BOT-Annuity (build, own, transfer) model, the road sector in India is exploring the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) for roadways construction. In HAM, 40 percent of th

Safety in numbers

A building comes up based on a plan, which is based on discussions among the client, the architect and the builder. Can they draw a blueprint without basic information like measurements of land, location, market price of materials required and s

India’s CSR funding set to reach Rs 20,000 crore

The corporate social responsibility funding in India is poised to grow to Rs 20,000 crore over the next three years. That is the estimate made by a new report that also says CSR funding has been growing at the rate of 9 percent a year.

Railways Diwali gift: Flexi fare removed from 15 trains

In what could be seen as a relief to lakhs of passengers, Indian Railways has discontinued flexi or dynamic fare system in 15 trains having monthly occupancy of less than 50 percent. The decision would also be applicable for 32 trains, having mont

Who’s to blame for Amritsar train tragedy

 The incident was not the railways’ fault. There was no lapse on our part and no action against the driver will be initiated. People should refrain from organising such events near tracks in future. I think if precaution had been taken,

What is rightfully yours

Had he not derided me, there would have been no article. His blunt question was, “If land records merely have presumptive value, then why examine them at all?” With his naiveté he stirred a hornet’s nest. It’s esta

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