Ranjit Devraj

Stories written by Ranjit Devraj
Regional editor Ranjit Devraj, based in Delhi, takes care of the journalistic production from the Asia and Pacific region. He handles a group of influential writers based in places like Bangkok, Rangoon, Tehran, Dubai, Karachi, Colombo, Melbourne, Beijing and Tokyo, among many others. He coordinates with the editor in chief and forms part of the IPS editorial team. Ranjit Devraj has been an IPS correspondent in India since 1997. Prior to that he was a special correspondent with the United News of India news agency. Assignments for UNI included development of the agency’s overseas operations, particularly in the Gulf region. Devraj counts two years in the trenches (1989-1990) covering the violent Gorkha autonomy movement in the Darjeeling Hills as most valuable in a career of varied journalistic experience.

INDIA: Failed Economic Reforms May Cost Rightists the Poll

By Ranjit Devraj

An electoral rout of the regional party that leads India's showpiece for economic reforms - southern Andhra Pradesh state - threatens to drag down with it Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's right-wing coalition in the just-concluded national elections.

POLITICS-INDIA: Opposition Congress Party May Yet Stage a Comeback

By Ranjit Devraj

After India's mammoth election exercise ended Monday, the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies had little of the confidence that prompted the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to call parliamentary elections six months before completing its five-year term in office.

EDUCATION-INDIA: Elite Schools Getting Lessons in Equality

By Ranjit Devraj

Tripping along to her drab, run-down government school in the Okhla industrial suburb of India's capital, Minu Tanwar dreams of the day she can shift to one of the posh schools here, patronised by the rich.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Delhi’s Biggest Slum Bulldozed Ahead of Elections

By Ranjit Devraj

Shahnawaz cannot vote in India's current parliamentary elections. His voter's identity card is somewhere in the rubble to which his family home was reduced when bulldozers raged through Yamuna Pushta, the capital's biggest slum cluster on the banks of the Yamuna river.

DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Free Meals for Children Less Than Palatable

By Ranjit Devraj

Seven-year-old Puja looks forward to the 'kichdi', a meal of mixed rice, vegetables and lentils provided free by her government-run school here in the Indian capital, even if it seems unpalatable to many.

SUSTAINABILITY-INDIA: Rainwater Harvesting Begins to Take Root

By Ranjit Devraj

After spending a lifetime building the irrigation canals that brought prosperity to the Punjab region that now straddles India and Pakistan, M L Sood believes that the future lies in rainwater harvesting rather than in big dams, irrigation canals and other grand civil engineering schemes.

POLITICS-INDIA: Pro-Hindu Ruling Party Woos Minority Muslim Votes

By Ranjit Devraj

It is difficult to ignore Syed Ahmed Bukhari because he is the hereditary 'Shahi Imam' (Imperial Priest) of Delhi's sprawling Jama Masjid or mosque, one of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan's many creations in sandstone and marble.

POLITICS-INDIA: Sari Stampede Shrouds ‘Shining India’ Slogan

By Ranjit Devraj

As voting began Tuesday for India's parliamentary elections, one of the more powerful images of the election campaign is that of scores of impoverished women being crushed and trampled to death in a stampede for cheap, one-dollar saris distributed in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's constituency of Lucknow.

INDIA: Two Years After, Pogrom Victims See Glimmer of Justice

By Ranjit Devraj

When India's Supreme Court ordered that the trial of a controversial murder case be moved outside western Gujarat on Monday, it was the first time since an anti-Muslim pogrom swept the state two years ago that the victims could begin to hope for real justice.

POLITICS-INDIA: Gun Scandal Back to Haunt Gandhis Ahead of Poll

By Ranjit Devraj

Allegations of bribery in a deal to buy Swedish artillery peaked all of 18 years ago, but continue to threaten the fortunes of India's opposition Congress Party and that of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty in the current election season.

ECONOMY-INDIA: Job Outsourcing Thrives Despite U.S. Backlash

By Ranjit Devraj

Despite the massive political backlash in the United States against it, the outsourcing of jobs overseas not only thrives but is drawing more global information-technology (IT) companies to invest in the outsourcing industry in India.

/CORRECTED REPEAT/INDIA: Amid Mudslinging, Calls Rise for Decency in Poll

By Ranjit Devraj

The campaign for India's general elections, set to begin later this month, has turned steamy enough for the Supreme Court to warn contesting parties to stay within the limits of decency or risk disqualification.

ENVIRONMENT: Tighter Emission Norms Help Asians Breathe Easier

By Ranjit Devraj

Asia is becoming a victim of its own rapid and uncontrolled development, say leading vehicular emission experts who gathered here this week to discuss strategies on how the region's more than 2.5 billion people can breathe easier. If there was one issue that delegates at the Mar. 30 - Apr. 1 conference, 'The Leapfrog Factor: Towards Clean Air in Asian Cities' concurred on, it was the need for tighter and faster regulations that could stem a situation already dangerous for human health.