Gandhi’s Champaran school on shaky ground

A dilapidated building, in Bhitiharva village of West Champaran in Bihar, stands on its last leg and looks like it would fall anytime. It looks more like a dumping place than a place of knowledge. It is a school, which was started by the father of our nation; Mahatma Gandhi. While walking in, the empty […]

A grave matter: Illegal land deals have made Muslim burial a costly affair

As if finding a piece of land to live on wasn’t difficult enough, the search for an eternal resting place, those precious ‘two-yards’, is making many Muslims lose their sleep. With an increase in the Muslim population and the absence of urban planning in many cities, the hunt for graves is becoming a serious problem […]

The Round Table Society of Kirori Mal College organises a seminar on RTI

BY DU BEAT The Round Table Society of Kirori Mal College organized a seminar and workshop on ‘Right to Information (RTI) and its role and achievements’ on Thursday, 20th February in the college seminar room. The event started with a welcome speech by Dr. S.P. Gupta, principal of the college, in which he welcomed and […]

India court convicts Batla House encounter accused

By SHAFAQUE ALAM Conforming to the charges leveled by Delhi police on Batla House encounter, a Delhi court on Thursday convicted the lone accused, Shahzad Ahmad in the controversial 2008 encounter case which had left two youths and a police inspector dead. Rajender Kumar Shastri, additional sessions judge convicted Ahmad for killing Delhi Police special cell […]

How pharma giants use litigation to evade fines

By Shonali Ghosal  Pharma companies have been fleecing the consumers by overpricing their medicines. As of 31 January, the total amount overcharged by companies stands at a mind-boggling Rs 2,596 crore, according to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). This figure is for the period since 1997 when the regulatory body was set up. On the […]

How the Nitish Kumar govt’s advertising budget sky-rocketed

Information revealed under RTI on the advertising budgets of two successive governments in Bihar shows that the Nitish Kumar government splurged on advertisements in the print and electronic media. By Pallavi Polanki  At a time when a raging controversy has broken out over the Press Council of India’s report on the Nitish Kumar government’s record on […]

Wikileaks: The Global Intelligence Files

On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered “global intelligence” company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, […]