Features

The Near Distance

Shruti Ravindran

Since Sri Lanka’s civil war began 26 years ago, Tamils have gone back and forth across the historically porous border with India in Tamil Nadu. About 100,000 refugees live in Tamil Nadu today. After President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared the war over in May 2009, are they prepared to make a final cross-border leap of faith?

Mr PM, We Have a Problem

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

Contrary to what Manmohan Singh says, it seems there was no ‘concurrence’ between the Finance Ministry and Telecom Department on 2G spectrum allocation

Alas, Someone Has to Pick up the Tab

Shailendra Tyagi

S&P had many valid reasons to downgrade US sovereign debt, the latest being an ugly political wrangle in Washington DC

The Resident Non-Indian

Aimee Ginsburg

Immigrants who want to make India home are forever kept at an arm’s length by those who ‘belong’. Notwithstanding the impressive list of ‘foreign’ citizen-leaders, innovators and heroes

The Dog That Bit Only Foreigners

Srinath Perur

…and had a sharp nose for national boundaries

The Agony of ‘Pakistani’ Indians

Shahina KK

In Kerala’s Malappuram district, a hundred odd people have one eye on the Indo-Pak border, even though it is thousands of kilometres away.

The Crossborder Cattle Caravan

Anil Budur Lulla

It is a thriving trade, the smuggling of bullocks across the Indo-Bangladesh border for slaughter. To contain it, however, India is better served tackling corruption than shooting at suspects

The Pakoda Parallels

Anoothi Vishal

No matter how distinctive our regional cuisines, we are more like each other than we know

Cracking the Case of Counterfeits

Alam Srinivas

Apart from soaring domestic interest rates, the Centre’s searing fiscal deficit, and high inflation coupled with lower growth, there is another threat to the Indian economy.