236 items in this section. Displaying page 23 of 24
Roy of Light
November 4: While cities and towns have the privilege of an electricity connection, there are still a number of remote villages in India that lack this facility. Their homes remain shockingly dark, even on the threshold of the twenty-first century. It’s a reality that the Indian government has done little to change. Providing electricity to all of India appears to be beyond its reach, even today. So the loudest cheers must be reserved for the man who says, yes, it’s possible to light up all the villages in India, even the poorest, most remote ones....
Orissa Police's Feathered Force is Dying
July 1: The news is that a mysterious disease has killed 35 valuable members of the Orissa’s police service. They are all pigeons. The first of the deaths took place in March in Puri district. Twenty-four more pigeons died soon after, in Cuttack district. They experienced long drowsy spells before dying. The veterinary doctors who examined them said that the mysterious disease could be just the sweltering heat. Pigeons? In this day and age? Yes, Orissa is the only state in India whose police force still employs pigeons as message carriers....
Indian Army Battles Infiltrating Terror Groups in Kashmir
Where: Jammu and Kashmir, India January 08, 2009 : While we hope and pray for peace in the New Year, Indian troops are engaged in battle with a group of militants in the forested Mendhar sector of Poonch district in Kashmir. The gun battle broke out on 1 January, 2009, and entered its eighth day today. The militants, it is believed, are senior commanders of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The Indian Army besieged the Pati Tar peak in the middle of a forest after receiving information about the presence of the hardcore militants in the area....
UN Conference on Climate Change
Where: Poznan, Poland December 13, 2008 : Global warming affects everyone. Finally, after years of negotiations, most countries in the world have agreed to work together to reduce how much they pollute the Earth’s environment. The United Nations Climate Change Conference began here on December 1, 2008 with delegates from 190 countries. Their target: to reach a global climate agreement by December 2008. This would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The US representative, Senator John Kerry, said temperatures could go up by anywhere between 3 degrees C and 5 degrees C higher by 2050....
They Make you Swallow a Fish for a Herbal Cure
As the northwest monsoon strikes India in the first week of June, people from all parts of India, and abroad, make a beeline for Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh. They all have one thing in common: they suffer from the disease of asthma and gather in Hyderabad for a unique herbal cure. The medicine is stuffed inside the mouth of a three-inch live murrel fish which the patient is made to swallow. Once inside the body, the fish releases the medicine....
Somdev Devvarman : India's New Tennis Star
Where: Chennai, India January 11, 2009 : At the 2009 Chennai Open tennis meet, the first ATP* tournament of the season, India’s Somdev Devvarman established himself as the country’s top singles tennis player. He reached the finals of the tournament, beating two-time Chennai Open former champion and world number 42, Spain’s Carlos Moya, and world number 25 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia. Rainer Schuettler of Germany, whom he was to have played in the semi-final, pulled out of the tournament due to injury....
Women's Army of Blood Donors
June 24: In a country like India, the lives of people are often lost because there is no help at hand. Many people think of it as fate and do nothing. But a group of poor village women have shown the way to the people of the southern state of Kerala, says a report in ‘The Indian Express’.. Sometime ago, a woman from Parappa village became seriously ill. She started bleeding heavily. The villagers frantically hunted for a vehicle to take her to the hospital, which was 40 km away....
India's Winning Streak at the Australian Open
Where: Melbourne, Australia February 1, 2009 : Yuki Bhambhri beat Alexandros-Ferdinandos Georgoudas of Germany 6-3, 6-1 in the junior boys final of the Australian Open Tennis championships in Melbourne. He is the first Indian to win this title. India’s tennis legend Ramanathan Krishnan, his son Ramesh, and later Leander Paes have all won the junior singles title at Wimbledon. Ramesh repeated the feat at the French Open, and Leander at the U.S.Open. Yuki, aged sixteen, entered the tournament ranked Numer One, as he had reached the semi-finals last year....
From Kitchen Cabinet to State Cabinet?
May 11: From the kitchen floor of the house to the Floor of the House or State Legislative Assembly – that is the distance Lakshmi Parui is hoping to cover. A widow in her late 50s, who supported herself by working as a domestic help in semi-urban Balagarh till a few weeks ago, she contested the West Bengal state elections on May 10. She has contested the elections as an ally of Mamta ‘Di’, leader of the Trinamool Congress....
Indian elections 2009: a symbol of people power
Where: India May 6, 2009 : When a nation of over one billion citizens wakes up every five years to elect its leaders, the entire world turns to watch. The “world’s largest democracy*", India, went to the polls on April 13, 2009, to elect members of the 15th Lok Sabha (or House of Commons, in the Indian Parliament). In a one month-long process, which will end on May 13, 2009, over 714 million voters** will be eligible to vote....