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Fund someone’s reading glasses
Civil Society News, New Delhi
IT is comforting to end the year by giving. Yet, even as you get your debit card out, choosing a ...
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LISTENING TO LADAKH
Civil Society News, New Delhi
WHEN you live up there in the Himalayas, how do you make yourself heard in Delhi? In an era of ...
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Goodbye to the Great Nicobar?
Civil Society News
THE Andaman and Nicobar Islands have always been known for their sparkling natural beauty. There are dense and sweeping forests, ...
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A brand gets built in rural Bengal
Civil Society News, New Delhi
TANTIPARA is a small village in West Bengal, a few hours by train from Kolkata. Chances are you won’t ever ...
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Can Lucknow get back its rivers and lakes?
By Venkatesh Dutta
THE city of Lucknow is planning a revival of its water heritage. If the effort succeeds at least one shrunken ...
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Bamboo bonanza for small farmers
Shree Padre, Palakkad
WHEN he worked in the Gulf as a cook for 30 years, Azees Aboobacker squirrelled together his savings to raise ...
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Activism to politics: AAP in office and in the streets
By Umesh Anand
IT was a chilly January morning in 2014. People were converging on the secretariat in Delhi, the seat of power ...
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Dry run in Bengaluru
By Umesh Anand
RIGHT in the middle of February, when Bengaluru should have been celebrating salubrious weather and enjoying the warm glow of ...
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When jobs grow on coconut trees
Shree Padre, Kasaragod
FOUR farmers in Kasaragod district of Kerala had a problem. Between them they had 1,000 coconut trees and time was ...
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Non-violence in a violent world
By Rajni Bakshi
ROBI Damelin remembers only the shock and searing pain of that moment when she was told that her son, David, ...
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When a great mango looks for a market
Shree Padre, Kasaragod
IN 2021, as the world struggled to shake off the Covid-19 pandemic, Kuttiattoor, a quiet village in Kerala, found itself ...
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A living on the LOC
Civil Society News, Kupwara/New Delhi
SHAHNAZA is a busy working woman who at 32 is in the prime of her life. Her day begins with ...
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Preschool makeover
Umesh Anand, New Delhi
IT was a small and forbidding toilet, airless and unlit. Squatting in it was unpleasant and came with risks both ...
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Punjab’s addiction anguish
The following is an edited extract from ‘Most of What You Know About Addiction is Wrong’ by Anirudh Kala, published ...
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Being in the age of AI
By Kiran Karnik
JULY 16, 1945, marked the start of a new era in human history: the beginning of the nuclear age. On ...
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Invisible officers make a difference
By Anil Swarup
IMAGINE the scene: villagers in the backward district of Kalahandi in Odisha are troubled by a water scarcity. They talk ...
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Many shades of the betel nut
Shree Padre, Kasaragod
THE betel nut has a terrible reputation. As a part of paan spittle it is associated with disgusting red stains ...
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Cityscape tracking: Green maps show changes
Civil Society News, New Delhi
Cities are caught up in relentless change. For the better or not it isn’t always clear. But in a city, ...
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South sets the pace
Saibal Chatterjee
BOLLYWOOD had expected fans to return in hordes to the multiplexes in 2022. They did rush back for the theatrical ...
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At home in a forest
Civil Society Reviews
WHAT is a good way to go tiger-watching? Slow down, spend time and sink into the forest. Be immersed in ...
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Baolis tumble out of Hyderabad’s past
Civil Society News, Hyderabad
FAR removed from its gleaming software parks and ambitious companies, a brooding necropolis on Hyderabad’s periphery is a reminder of ...
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On the trail of the Gomti
By Venkatesh Dutta
IT was in early spring of 2011 that I decided to walk along the course of the Gomti from its ...
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An outsider in politics
Ram Gidoomal
WHAT on earth was I doing here? Winter sun streamed in through the windows of Toynbee Hall’s meeting room. I ...
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Ganesh Babu’s secret life in the wilds
Civil Society News, New Delhi/Bengaluru
IT was a plant whose reputation preceded it. An aggressive woody climber, it was known to produce small white flowers ...
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When dogs rule the streets and endanger people
Civil Society News, New Delhi
A little girl, all of three years old, playing with other children in a park in Moti Nagar in west ...
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Officers and Politicians
By Anil Swarup
WHEN a serving officer of the Enforcement Directorate who had been pretty active in enforcing the writ (read the will) ...
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Healing at Vaidyagrama
Jyoti Pande Lavakare
GENTLE, smiling therapists help me off the hard and slippery wooden table, bathing me like a baby, with lukewarm water ...
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Move more, eat right, build those muscles
Civil Society News, New Delhi
THE COVID-19 pandemic has been the focus of the world’s attention. But is this crisis just about a new virus ...
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Reinventing healthcare
By Raghunath Mashelkar
A major outbreak of dengue fever in India in 2013 resulted in a flood of patients at hospitals and clinics ...
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Put women in charge
By Poonam Muttreja
The 137 women who were herded into derelict healthcare facilities were given a choice: more babies or sterilization. It was ...
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Toxic shop floors keep workers away
By Rajiv Khandelwal
WITH A DECADE of shop floor experience, Harlal is an expert in firing up and managing boilers in a textile ...
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Who is a political prisoner? Time to define one
By Nandita Haksar
THERE has been a great deal of anguish, angst and anger expressed at the death of Stanislaus Lourduswamy (1937–2021), popularly ...
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Blessed is the rural hospital
Civil Society News, Gurugram
IT’s a dreary morning in May. The news from all over the country is of deaths, cremations and patients trying ...
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Hindutva vs Bharat in big fight for states
By Sanjaya Baru
INDIA, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States. Thus begins the Indian Constitution. The ‘Hindu nationalist’ Bharatiya Janata ...
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Why farmers won't budge and the real story of reforms
Civil Society News, New Delhi
WHEN three laws aimed at improving farm incomes were speeded through Parliament in September last year, a chorus of headlines ...
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The next pandemic?
By Dr Ravikant Singh
Masarhi is a village in Bihar so steeped in grinding poverty that its people are known to hunt rats in their ...
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A phone is not enough
By Osama Manzar
When the coronavirus pandemic set in and a rigid lockdown brought life to a standstill across India, millions of migrant ...
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Fruit bowl beats the lockdown
Shree Padre, Kasargod
Kanakgiri Gangadharayya was certain he would earn a substantial profit this March by selling grapes. A farmer in Koppal district ...
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Migrants in the mirror: Where do we go from here?
Civil Society News, New Delhi
When migrant workers in millions swamped TV screens, becoming a story as big as the pandemic itself, there were many images ...
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Doctors out there: Why small hospitals matter
Civil Society News, New Delhi
In 1992 a young couple, both doctors, travelled from Madurai in Tamil Nadu to a remote corner of Assam to ...
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Bold new music by Azadi Records
Sidika Sehgal, New Delhi
How to know what young India is thinking? One way is to listen to its contemporary music. Bollywood’s hits tell ...
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Future of healthcare: A roadmap for integration
Darshan Shankar
A former foreign minister of Singapore in search of a cure for his Parkinson’s disease admitted himself to the hospital at ...
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A partnership reduces child, maternal mortality
Civil Society News, Seraikela, Jharkhand
At 18, Sonam Purti is a very young mother in the village of Bundu. Her baby girl is just a ...
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Big campus upsurge: How students connect
Civil Society News, New Delhi
It was an old-style rampage that shook the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on the evening of January 5. ...
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Rising anger: Everyone's protesting
Civil Society News, New Delhi
When thousands of students laid siege to the headquarters of the Delhi Police on the cold night of December 15, ...
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Watching films in the clouds
Saibal Chatterjee, Dharamshala
In the run-up to its eighth edition, the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) ran into a roadblock. The expected funds ...
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A million wells for Bengaluru
Shree Padre, Bengaluru
Rainbow Drive, a housing colony on Sarjapur Road, has never known a water shortage. It is a big thing in ...
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What is Pune losing and how fast?
Manjusha Ukidve & Ritu Gavandi, Pune
Pune was known as a green and picturesque urban paradise. It was a city people went to, to retire. Those ...
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Smart Urban PHCs: How Nagpur does it
Umesh Anand, Nagpur
It is a morning like any other at the primary health centre at Futala. A large number of patients have ...
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Poor put faith in powerful Modi
Sanjaya Baru
The common perception about Narendra Modi’s first term as Prime Minister is that he was first elected in 2014 on ...
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Campco's areca nut farmers turn to chocolate
Shree Padre, Puttur
The aroma of chocolate wafts past as you drive into Koornadka, a suburb of Puttur, a town 52 km from ...
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Rising Chikoo! Farmers make ice-cream, sweets and wine
Shree Padre, Bordi
The chikoo is rising and how! ‘Chikoo Parlours’ offering milkshakes, ice-cream, sweets, pickles, chips and more made from the fruit ...
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Girl power in Bihar the Project Lehar way
Kaveree Bamzai , Patna
Shila Kumari comes out of her tiny hut on the bank of the Punpun river, her eyes blinking in the ...
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Biennale opens up to bring everyone on board in Kochi
Saibal Chatterjee, Kochi
An immersive sound art installation by 43-year-old Mumbai-based artist Shilpa Gupta titled “For, In Your Tongue I Cannot Hide” is ...
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Cinema’s rockstars are directors from Northeast
Saibal Chatterjee, New Delhi/Panaji
January 2019 Over the past five to six years, Indian cinema has been increasingly enriched by narrative features and documentaries ...
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Mahua makes it to the bar, tribes likely to benefit
Derek Almeida, Panaji
In a liquor market crowded with the world’s best brands, an intrepid Goan entrepreneur has carved out shelf space for ...
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Engineer, green guru: GD's story and his last fast
Dunu Roy, New Delhi
We were on the bus from Shahdol to Varanasi. Suddenly, “Roko, roko!” my companion urged the driver. He leapt out ...
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Mayyil rice miracle: Output is doubled, farmers start firm
Shree Padre, Kannur
The 18-km drive from Kannur town to Mayyil in Kerala ends in a diorama of paddy glistening in its fields. ...
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Araku lifeline brings maternal deaths to zero
Swapna Majumdar, Araku Valley
Surrounded by dense forests, Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam district is rich in biodiversity, but its people are poor. ...
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TB time bomb: A survivor tells his story
SAURABH RANE
I was training to be a doctor when I started feeling sick. After two weeks of continued fever, cough and ...
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How farmer-journos made jackfruit a star in Kerala
Civil Society News, New Delhi
When the Kerala government recently declared jackfruit the state fruit, celebrations broke out in the small office of Adike Patrike, ...
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How inclusive are India’s top 100 listed companies?
Civil Society News, New Delhi
The top 100 listed companies in India could do better by way of inclusion, according to an index of socially ...
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Delhi’s greener past: A map to make us think
Geeta Wahi Dua & Brijender S. Dua, New Delhi
Look around you in Delhi and the city seems to be teetering on the brink of hopelessness. A dying river, ...
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Kerala is crazy about passion fruit
Shree Padre, Kottayam
Kerala is on a honeymoon with passion fruit. Originally from Brazil, passion fruit has found fertile ground in the state ...
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Is the Pancheshwar Dam really needed?
Himanshu Thakkar
In the dense forests of Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand, on the India-Nepal border, the world’s tallest dam is being planned. ...
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Goa's gritty gram sabhas fight back
Derek Almeida, Panaji
When the state government in Goa drew up plans to make the Mormugao Port a hub for importing coal and ...
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What a Smile can do: 250 projects in 25 states
Kavita Charanji, New Delhi
When Smile Foundation was launched in 2002, corporate social responsibility wasn’t the big thing that it is now. The government ...
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Water smart city: Belagavi revives its abandoned wells
Shree Padre, Belagavi
Every summer, until a few years ago, tempers would rise in the municipal corporation of Belagavi (formerly Belgaum), a city ...
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Muddled nutrition in Delhi ends up in PIL
Civil Society News, New Delhi
An estimated 50 percent of children in the National Capital Territory of Delhi are undernourished, but a State Food Commission ...
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Winning the Water Cup in parched Maharashtra
Shree Padre, Satara
At sunrise every day, across 13 districts in Maharashtra, thousands of villagers set out to dig trenches and build earthen ...
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Living with tigers in Ranthambhore
When I first went to Ranthambhore in early 1976, seeing wild tigers was the most difficult of tasks. You could ...
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Kerala's GI hunters provide stardom to unique crops
Shree Padre, Pattambi
CHengalikodan is a banana with a venerable past. An ancient document from a Tharavad household in Kerala mentions its history. ...
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From Sunny Leone to AAP to dalits...
Saibal Chatterjee, New Delhi
Documentaries go where fictional feature films usually cannot. Driven by a spirit of enquiry, they unveil reality, ask questions and ...
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Water Guru is No More
Umesh Anand, New Delhi
The thirteenth anniversary issue of Civil Society with the Hall of Fame 2016 was out from the press and I ...
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