CATEGORIES

Changing Gears

That our roads are getting deadlier by the day isn’t really breaking news. But no one thinks this fact will ever come home to roost. Well, in my case, it did – literally!

Charge Through The Cappuccino

Presenting Calcutta’s Cafe Positive, where young HIV positive persons deliver a strongish brew.

The KCR Gambit

Political debate heats up in Telangana over early elections.

Count Your Rupee In Cents

Will 70 to a dollar be the new normal for the Indian currency?

Epic Sound Of Thunder

The Adishakti group brings alive a myth from the Ramayana.

Turn On A Thousand Lights

Lights As DMK chief, Stalin has to keep his flock together, set an agenda and meet challenges.

What India Eats and What's Wrong With It

Tracing the contours of the ‘nutrition famine’ hitting those who think they eat well points at the cure: recovering the diversity in what we eat

The Vizier's Gambit

BJP and RSS leaders thrashed out their 2019 poll strategy in a recent meeting

New Dawn Or A Lit-Up Screen

Acting is all about timing. Jaya’s absence and DMK’s dismal bypoll show offer Rajinikanth a grand entry.

Coins Of Change

Digital currency can rid India of high-cost cash woes

Factors Beyond Mere Bhagya

Congress goes pro-poor in its last leg, but BJP is rich in snubbing the ruling party ahead of state elections

Graveyard Of A Land

An insatiable sea licks away the Sunderbans, leaving lakhs of lives at water’s edge

Darkest Spots On A Bouncy Pitch

Devious bookies still work to stain cricket. Against them are a feeble anti-corruption body and no laws.

Misery As A Terrific Biz Opportunity

A non-existent system of ­regulation ­allows ­unscrupulous ­profiteers to mint ­money from private sector hospitals, which ­comprise nearly 80 per cent of India’s healthcare ­infrastructure

Lessons Without A Leash

A new national-level ‘augmentation course’ has been introduced to make our canine soldiers smarter and teach them to listen and guard us better

Playing It Again With Sam

India should retain its good relations with the US in the Trump era, but expand its options with other key players.

War-Wary Uncle Sam In The Valley

US interest in resolving the Kashmir ‘issue’ thrills separatists and disturbs the Centre

We Must Try For An All-India Entrance Exam For Judges For Uniform Recruitment

Thousands of lawyers apply for each exa­mination that is notified for recruitment to the district and subordinate judiciary. The various High Courts conduct the rec­ruitment exercise without sufficient staff strength and some have described it as an ‘ad hoc’ measure because there have been issues with it. The idea of an All India Jud­icial Service has been mooted since 1946. It has been discussed by the Law Commissions of India, which have favoured its creation. Recently, maj­ority of High Courts said they want to retain control over recruitment. The idea has also been pressed by the All India Judges Asso­ciation in two petitions to the Supr­eme Court, which wasn’t opposed to it in its first verdict in 1992 (the second is yet to come). Jurist, senior advocate and former attorney general of India Soli J Sorabjee, in an interview with Ushinor Majumdar, agrees that an All India Judicial Services, with a few tweaks, can be planned and executed to tackle the problem. He seconds an idea to have an entrance exa­mination to recruit qualified lawyers as public prosecutors.

Lens Shows A Spiderweb

So bad is crime probe in India that a closer view at cases exposes the sleuths further.

Cries In Twilight Hours

A sense of filial abandonment stalks and steers the life of the heroine and provides the framework for this novel set in a brutal apartheid South Africa.

This Song Is Our Song

When a media mogul attempted to hide away the song of Tamil Nadu’s Mahakavi, it sparked a movement.

Reign Again, Mahanati

A new biopic on Savitri hopes to do justice to her legacy.

The New Silk Road To Empire

The world is no longer America’s oyster. China looms like a giant cloud spilling beyond Asian skies. What is India to do to cope with these shifting geopolitics? 

The Dragon In A Great Game

The Trump-Xi summit heralds a new era in China’s status 

Economy Over Prickly Politics

On the economic front, positively engaging with China is vital 

This is slavery based on caste

On many occasions, the Ramon Magsaysay Award has been bestowed on individuals of various ilks and ideological persuasions. For the first time, perhaps, it speaks to an issue that touches the lives of millions of people because an award for Bezwada Wilson (50) is an international acknowledgement of the cause of the people who have been forced for generations, by an inhuman system of caste-ordained occupation, to handle the human waste of a structurally apathetic society. Before leaving for Manila to receive the award on August 31, Wilson spoke to the media about the only thing he cares for: “reclaiming for the Dalits the human dignity that is their natural birthright,” as the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation put it. Excerpts from the conversation Uttam Sengupta had with the national convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA):

A Hurrah For No Complexo

‘The Rio Games is a grand success’, trumpet a few. A divided country begs to differ.

'Dahi Handi' A Prized Tradition, Has Ruined Many Lives

Breaking the Dahi Handi may be a prized tradition, but the 'sport' has ruined many lives.

Supervillain In Sin City

In the wake of its deadliest mass shooting, America once again confronts its unending cycle of gun violence

Saffron Ambivalence

RSS throws cold water on Centre’s overtures to Kashmiris. Not all are amused.