Briefing

What ails Indian football
Arbitrary selection procedures, inadequate preparation, insufficient international exposure and match-practice, and scant attention to ...

The prediction game
BEING a scientist and a football freak need not be mutually exclusive. On the eve of the World Cup tournament at the newly founded ...

Of rules and referees
The laws of the game that the referee has to apply are clear. In applying them to specific situations, however, he can use his discretion. But ...

A perilous policy shift
Reversing a time-tested policy, the National Democratic Alliance government opens up the print media for foreign direct investment.

Criticism and concern
THE Central government's decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in the print media has, predictably enough, evoked sharp ...

Promises to break
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad backtracks on its promise to abide by the court verdict on the Ayodhya issue, alleging that the Central government ...

The Katiyar card
The appointment of the hardline Hindutva votary Vinay Katiyar as the president of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh may help the party's revival; at the ...

On an autonomous path
Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah puts Jammu and Kashmir in election mode by resurrecting the autonomy demand and distancing the National ...

A RECORD IN WEST BENGAL
With far-reaching achievements in the fields of agriculture and industry to its credit, the Left Front completes 25 years of uninterrupted rule ...

To consolidate gains
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal on October 28, 2000, after Jyoti Basu stepped down from the post. As a senior ...

Cauvery concerns
The issue of sharing Cauvery waters between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka once again reaches boiling point. PARVATHI MENON in Bangalore ...

Kidney racket in Kerala
Reports of illegal kidney donations emerge from Kerala, a State hitherto considered free from such types of exploitation. R. KRISHNAKUMAR ...

Opposition dilemmas
The AIADMK juggernaut rolls on, while a mood of ennui seems to have set in in the DMK. The PMK is trying hard to hold its ground and the TMC ...

'It is politics of terror'
The police, who bore the brunt of the extremist activity in Andhra Pradesh, feel that the People's War Group is using the let-up in their ...

Talking points
THE Andhra Pradesh government took the initiative and circulated a list of issues that it wanted to discuss with the People's War Group ...

Tenuous truce
The People's War Group in Andhra Pradesh has agreed to hold direct talks with the State government, but the killing of two women naxalites in ...

Of rules and referees
The laws of the game that the referee has to apply are clear. In applying them to specific situations, however, he can use his discretion. But ...

Markets through the backdoor
Electricity Bill 2001 that will, among other things, allow private players to sell power directly to the consumer, constitutes a short-sighted ...

A challenging phase
The Delhi Vidyut Board finds buyers for its power distribution companies, but several hurdles, including petitions before the Delhi High Court, ...

Trial and execution
The CPC (Amendment) Act, 2002 marks several changes in the original Act in order to expedite the trial of cases, but uncertainties with regard ...

Tehelka trials
Even as complaints of an official witch-hunt against the portal mount, the Tehelka chief defends the means it adopted for the controversial ...

Wanted: policy, not hubris
The Union government is wrong to make rosy assumptions about Kashmir. Neither muscle-flexing nor elections can substitute for an inclusive ...

The sacking of a President
What are Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's motives in making the country's President resign and in putting her son in a powerful post in her party? ...

Talking Asia
Thailand paves the way for the Asia Cooperation Dialogue forum. Will it form the missing link in regional cooperation? IS Asia ...

Committed to socialism
At President Fidel Castro's urging, Cubans reaffirm their faith in the country's socialist system. THE Cuban people have once ...

A RECORD IN WEST BENGAL
With far-reaching achievements in the fields of agriculture and industry to its credit, the Left Front completes 25 years of uninterrupted rule ...

To consolidate gains
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal on October 28, 2000, after Jyoti Basu stepped down from the post. As a senior ...

Cauvery concerns
The issue of sharing Cauvery waters between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka once again reaches boiling point. PARVATHI MENON in Bangalore ...

Kidney racket in Kerala
Reports of illegal kidney donations emerge from Kerala, a State hitherto considered free from such types of exploitation. R. KRISHNAKUMAR ...

Opposition dilemmas
The AIADMK juggernaut rolls on, while a mood of ennui seems to have set in in the DMK. The PMK is trying hard to hold its ground and the TMC ...

'It is politics of terror'
The police, who bore the brunt of the extremist activity in Andhra Pradesh, feel that the People's War Group is using the let-up in their ...

Talking points
THE Andhra Pradesh government took the initiative and circulated a list of issues that it wanted to discuss with the People's War Group ...

Tenuous truce
The People's War Group in Andhra Pradesh has agreed to hold direct talks with the State government, but the killing of two women naxalites in ...

The dam-land conundrum
The Madhya Pradesh government relents to review the rehabilitation of Maan dam oustees following an indefinite fast by Narmada Bachao Andolan ...

First, an end to encounter killings
The poet P. Varavara Rao, a member of the All India League for Revolutionary Culture (AILRC), was one of the People's War Group (PWG) ...

For a creative strategy
Peace is India's first charge. There should not be a horror-terror war until the last hope of peace is lost. MORE than half a ...

WALKING WITH R.K. NARAYAN
WHEN I was in college in the early 1940s, I used to spend my leisure hours in the reading room of the College Union, enthusiastically ...

Morality and scientists
In the Shadow of the Bomb: Bethe, Oppenheimer and the Moral Responsibility of the Scientist by S.S. Schweber; Universities Press; ...

Market failure: A convincing case
The Market that Failed: A Decade of Neoliberal Economic Reforms in India by C.P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh; Leftword Books, New ...

Of jihad and conflict
The Shade Of Swords: Jihad and the Conflict Between Islam & Christianity by M.J. Akbar; Lotus Collection/ Roli Books, New Delhi; ...

The rise of print
National Readership Survey 2002 shows that the print media have acquired 17 million more readers since 1999. DOOMSDAY prophets ...