South Asia Citizens Web

sacw.net, 12 March 2009 For over eight years, 36-year-old, Irom Chanu Sharmila has been in almost continuous detention in Imphal, in the north-eastern state of Manipur, for her refusal to take any food or drink by mouth till India’s draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA) is repealed from all of Manipur. Sharmila’s arrest under Indian criminal law (IPC Section 309) for attempted suicide is legally permissible for a maximum of one year at a time. In keeping with the law, (…)

The Tribune
The Satyam fiasco: Nationalisation is the right course
The Satyam scandal, which has been described by our Prime Minister as a "blot on our corporate image", gets murkier every day. The larger question is: when a private management has defrauded the company, should the government bail it out by pumping money in it to let it continue in private ownership? The question arises especially when it is done by ignoring the mandate of Article 39 of the Constitution, which directs (…)

Deccan Herald, 11 March 2009
Agricultural Reforms: On the wrong track
In the garb of ’conservation agriculture’, costly technology and imported concepts of sustainability are being introduced.
On the face of it, it looks like agricultural scientists all over the world are now trying to mend ways, trying to learn from the farmers on the need to conserve natural resources with a view to improve efficiency, equity and environment. The unprecedented global food crisis in the first half of (…)

sacw.net, February 19 2008
This is a review of a popular film, ’Slumdog Millionaire’, on the grim “realities” of slum life in Bombay/Mumbai in the Rising/Shining India, which would eventually bag eight Oscar awards apart from a few other. This is a "foreign" film by a "foreign" director with virtually all Indian actors and actresses. And of course the site is India.
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Goaded by all the hype and hoopla, made the necessary efforts and spent the money to watch the movie in a (…)