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.

Girls share a 100-dollar laptop. Credit: Komathi A.L.

INDIA: 100-Dollar Laptops Bring In Distant Kids

Responding to the lack of computer training in Mukteshwar’s schools, Veena Sethi, a retired Delhi University professor, set up two used personal computers in the basement of her home with the aim of bringing the basics of computing to school children.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Judiciary On Trial

Rights activists hope that a contempt case before India’s Supreme Court will add impetus to calls for greater accountability in the judiciary, the integrity of which has been seriously questioned in recent years.

INDIA: Life Term for Activist a Setback for Human Rights

The life sentence served on Dr Binayak Sen on charges of helping Maoist rebels in eastern India has rattled people and organisations fighting to strengthen human rights in a country that prides itself on being the world’s biggest democracy.

Swanky retail outlets are popping up in squalid settings.  Credit: Ranjit Devraj

India-EU Deal Threatens Mom-and-Pop Retail

Retail giants pushing the European Union-India free trade deal promise consumers a "new and dynamic retail experience" but ignore the fate of India’s "mom-and-pop" stores and some 40 million people they employ.

Biomedical waste incinerator in the midst of Sukhdev Vihar in New Delhi. Credit: Ranjit Devraj /IPS

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Waste-to-Energy Plants Face Public Heat

A plan to establish waste-to-energy plants in New Delhi as part of a carbon- trading programme has run into fierce opposition over hazards posed by toxic chemical byproducts.

INDIA: Brakes Applied to SUVs – ‘Socially Useless Vehicles’

Indian owners of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and luxury cars, who have been benefiting from subsidies on diesel meant to help farmers, may soon have to pay real prices for their fuel.

India Bleeding Through Illegal Transfers

A new report suggesting that illegal transfers of funds into accounts abroad by India’s corrupt politicians, officials and businessmen average 19.3 billion dollars a year could turn out to be a "gross underestimate", watchdogs warn.

INDIA: Now the ‘Mother of All Scams’

As India is rocked by a series of billion-dollar scams, the question on everybody's mind is whether the perpetrators will go scot-free in what has been described as a low-risk, high-gain activity in this country.

INDIA: India Edges Closer to Permanent UN Seat

A permanent seat in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is no longer a pie in the sky for India with U.S. President Barack Obama formally endorsing the candidature of this Asian giant with 1.2 billion people.

The Goddess of English appears as a new deity. Credit: Chandra Bhan Prasad/IPS

INDIA: Dalits Turn to the Goddess of English

India's Dalits are turning to the ''Goddess of English'' for deliverance from centuries of religiously-sanctioned caste oppression.

Peninsular India's seafood abundance attracts fishing fleets and poachers from around the world. Credit: Marine Products Export Development Authority

Free Trade Deals Bait Indian Fishermen

A series of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) is threatening the livelihoods of India's fishermen on the 8,000 km peninsular coastline - among the longest in the world - and the diets of millions of Indians for whom fish is a cheap source of protein.

China Haunts Indian PM’s Tour

When Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returns home from his current tour of Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam he will likely reflect on how closely the spectre of a an assertive China had dogged his travels.

INDIA: Many Scientific Reports Plagiarsed

Embarrassing retractions of scientific papers and a thinly-disguised report favouring introduction of genetically modified crops by the country's top science academies have revived calls for more stringent action against plagiarism and unethical practices.

DEATH PENALTY-INDIA: No Noose Is Good News

Campaigners against the death penalty in India are hopeful that a series of commutations of hanging sentences to life imprisonment this month will add up to a trend against the award of capital punishment.

Free Trade Threatens Affordable HIV Treatment

With India's role as 'pharmacy to the developing world' seriously threatened by a free trade agreement to be signed with the European Union in December, the fate of cheap or free antiretroviral treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS hangs in balance.

INDIA: Indian Schools Will Spare the Rod, and the Child

Child rights activists hope that the arrest of the principal of one of India's elite public schools for caning a student and possibly abetting his suicide will serve to put an end to the widespread practice of corporeal punishment in this country's educational institutions.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Staying Afloat With Submarine Rice

South Asian rice farmers are switching to flood-tolerant strains of rice as insurance against inundations.

INDIA: Draconian Law Under the Lens

A draconian law that allows army officers to shoot civilians in areas declared 'disturbed' has come under intense scrutiny, mainly as a result of months of separatist street protests in India's Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) state.

INDIA: Cereals Rot in the Rain While the Poor Stay Hungry

When India's Supreme Court reacted to the news that thousands of tonnes of grain were rotting in the rain due to lack of granary space and ordered the government to distribute the surplus free of cost to the hungry, it seemed like the logical thing to do.

INDIA: Fears of Privacy Loss Pursue Ambitious ID Project

Fears about loss of privacy are being voiced as India gears up to launch an ambitious scheme to biometrically identify and number each of its 1.2 billion inhabitants.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Law to Restrict Foreign Funding Alarms NGOs

Voluntary and charitable organisations in India are aghast at a new law to restrict foreign contributions, that was passed by both Houses of Parliament recently.

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