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Friday, October 16, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
POLITICS: Despite Arafat’s Plea, India Does Little for Palestine
While India has condemned the Israeli army's siege of Yasser Arafat's presidential complex as standing in the way of peace in Palestine, there is little else this country is prepared to do for a former close ally.ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Water Policy Flows Past Community Rights
A new National Water Policy released this week in India emphasises the continued government control over water resources, ignoring the plea by environmental groups to involve local communities in order to overcome looming water shortages.INDIA: Premier’s Visit to Riot-hit State Too Little Too Late
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited riot-torn, western Gujarat Thursday, more than a month after a provincial government run by his pro-Hindu, Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) began a pogrom against minority Muslims.DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Poor Governance Boosts Water Privatisation
Privatising water supply holds no new terrors for the inhabitants of this southern Indian city, who are resigned to uncertain supplies of a once freely available natural resource that is now fast turning into a commodity.INDIA: GM Decision Shows Neglect of People’s Movements – Critics
When India's right-wing government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, granted approval for the commercial farming of genetically modified (GM) cotton Tuesday, it was yet another sign of its readiness to ignore civil society at home and please transnational corporations and the West, critics say.INDIA: Gujarat Pogrom May Affect Passage of Anti-terrorist Law
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's plans to usher in harsh anti-terrorist laws may have suffered a setback through the blatantly partisan handling by his pro-Hindu, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of the communal riots rocking western Gujarat state for nearly four weeks.HEALTH-INDIA: Claims of Link to AIDS Adds to Debate on GM Foods
The claim by a top medical expert here that genetically modified (GM) foods can trigger off Auto Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has added to existing fears engendered by a sudden flood of transgenic products in India's newly globalised markets.HEALTH-INDIA: Anti-HIV Therapy Available, But Not Antenatal Care
Pregnant women in India may access anti-HIV therapy better than plain antenatal care, under a programme now being put in place at government hospitals across the country.DEVELOPMENT: India Has Lessons in Murky Funding of Power Projects
India can teach more lessons in the financing of power projects than learn them, says a report released Tuesday, which uses Enron's discredited megaproject in the country and the controversial Narmada Valley project to expose the murky workings of indirect funding for such schemes.ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Farming State Bent on Growing GE Cotton
Warnings from environmentalists and food security experts will not deter India's farming state of Punjab, which borders Pakistan, from sowing genetically engineered (GE) cotton when the 'kharif' or rainy season begins in the middle of the year.POLITICS-INDIA: Temple-building Row Defused – for Now
Overwhelming troop presence in northern India on Friday prevented Hindu fanatics from getting near the site where they demolished a 16th century mosque 10 years ago, avoiding the risk of communal violence, but the row over the holy site is far from over.POLITICS-INDIA: Court Throws Cold Water on Temple Plans
A Supreme Court ruling handed down on Wednesday, prohibiting religious activity at Ayodhya town in northern India where Hindu fanatics razed a mosque 10 years ago, may yet restore faith in India's battered secular ideals.POLITICS-INDIA: Court Throws Cold Water on Temple Plans
A Supreme Court ruling handed down on Wednesday, prohibiting religious activity at Ayodhya town in northern India where Hindu fanatics razed a mosque 10 years ago, may yet restore faith in India's battered secular ideals.INDIA: Ruling Pro-Hindu Party in Crisis over Temple-Mosque Row
A mediaeval mosque demolished by Hindu fundamentalists 10 years ago now haunts the pro-Hindu, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and threatens to destabilise the 21-party coalition it leads.RIGHTS-INDIA: Jailing Author May Prove Costly for Courts
By sending the Booker Prize-winning author and anti-dam activist Arundhati Roy to jail for contempt this week, India's Supreme Court may have succeeded in resurrecting proposals to pare off the higher judiciary's feudal powers.POLITICS-INDIA: Secular Ideals Harmed by Hindu-Muslim Riots
As a tourist guide at the Indian capital's 13th century Qutb Minar, Ramesh has a special spiel reserved for domestic tourists who demand to be shown pieces from Hindu temples incorporated into the sandstone tower and mosque complex, which was built to commemorate Islamic ascendancy over India.POLITICS-INDIA: Temple-building Dispute Claims at Least 57 Lives
Plans by the fundamentalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or World Hindu Forum to construct a temple where it demolished a mosque in 1992 claimed its first victims Wednesday, when 57 of its volunteers were torched to death in the western Indian state of Gujarat.POLITICS-INDIA: Polls Revive Fortunes of Opposition Party
India's venerable Congress party, which led the country to independence and dominated it politically for the most of the last century, is now firmly on the comeback trail through the provinces.POLITICS-INDIA: Caste, Community Dominate State Elections
Constitutionally, India is secular and caste discrimination illegal, but religious loyalties and the ancient social hierarchy continue to determine how Indians vote û as evident in the current polls in northern Uttar Pradesh state.HEALTH-INDIA: Hyped HIV/AIDS Figures Skew Priorities
Indian health workers and activists are accusing international agencies of inflating HIV/AIDS statistics, which in turns skews priorities in the area of public health.HEALTH-INDIA: Plague-like Disease Kills Four, Causes Panic
After a fourth person died of a mysterious illness that has caused panic in the northern Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal, medical experts said the disease could be plague.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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