Features

Random Notes on Pimps

Pallavi Polanki

Red Light streets are yesterday. Mobile phones. Residential colonies. The suburbs. Housewives. Students. The pimps show us glimpses of the changing profile of the sex industry

‘You Guys Are So Expressive’

TR Vivek

The Finnish superbrand’s design specialist Juliana Fereira shrugs off comparisons with the iPhone and holds forth on creating a global language of iconography and the importance of widgets. What’s that? Read on

Balti Food© Birmingham

Sajeda Momin

Restaurateurs across the UK are up in arms against the Birmingham City Council’s move to patent Balti curry

‘No Compromise on Leading Rebellions’

Amit Baruah

CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat on the difficulties his party faces in the 2011 West Bengal Assembly election, the threat from Maoists and his error in allowing the UPA government to negotiate a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency in November 2007.

Karma Chameleons

Haima Deshpande

Believe it or not, Raj Thackeray’s MNS is wooing Muslims in Maharashtra even as it attacks Hindi speaking leaders like Abu Azmi. The party spies votes in yet another divide—and Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena seems ready to follow suit

Loyalty and Its Symbols

Jaideep Mazumdar

Tibetan flags may have fluttered in Tawang briefly before the Dalai Lama’s visit, but the local people are keener than ever to assert their Indian identity

Confused Crosshairs

Rahul Pandita

Be it the name of the proposed anti-Naxal offensive or its aims, Operation Green Hunt befuddles politicians left, right and centre

India This Week

arindam

The Brothers Reddy and Their Swaraj; CPM Stops in its Tracks; US Bars Indian Spooks; MNS-Azmi Fracas; and By-Poll Mayhem for CPM

The Untouchables

Srinivasan Jain

It’s a police force that let the nation down on 26 November 2008. The author spent months meeting the men in uniform, from the brass to the beat constable, to get a grip on what really is wrong with the Mumbai force. The answer is a story of incompetence, political venality, corruption, lack of equipment and motivation. This is a force that has AK-47s but can’t afford to load them with bullets. Yes, we need to be scared.

The Bellary Alarum

Anil B. Lulla

The BJP is riven again as the Reddy brothers bay for the head of Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa. Earthy interests lie at the heart of their rebellion