Editorial

A Fresh Start with an Old Idea

If ever there was a young, old magazine, then Democratic World or DW is its best example. This is its launch issue and I don't believe you could get fresher than this. At the same time, DW is an old magazine; the original idea that led to DW germinated in the early 1970s with my father, the late Mr ...

Cover Story

Man with a Plan

Get into the mind of the man who's always on the move — Analjit Singh talks about his work and the desire for maximum impact The year was 1999 and had you been in England at the time, you might just have come upon a Sikh gentleman quietly going about his business. At first glance, you might have ...

Up-To-Date

Girl Power at Nobel

Panel focuses on women’s role in peace efforts World Politics\\ It was all about wonder women at the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony held in October 2011. For the first time in seven years, three women, two from Liberia, were conferred the honour. The award was given jointly to the President of ...

The Occidental Crisis Hits the World

Greek and Italian Prime Ministers submit resignations International\\ The European Sovereign Debt Crisis took a new turn with the Prime Ministers of Greece and Italy offering their resignations. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou declared his resignation from the post to make way for the forme...

Conrad Murray Cornered

Michael Jackson's doctor found guilty of manslaughter judgement\\ King of Pop, Michael Jackson’s physician Dr Conrad Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the matter of Jackson’s death, which happened in 2009. Murray had administered a powerful surgical anaesthetic to the sing...

Vettel finishes first, India winner in F1

Sports \\ In October 2011, India successfully hosted its first Formula One Indian Grand Prix at the newly laid-out Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The circuit was built at an approximate cost of $315 million and was designed by the famous F1 circuit designer, Hermann Til...

The Rise and Fall of Petrol Prices

Petrol prices rose for the fourth time in a year, then backed down to strong opposition Political\\ The three state-owned oil giants — Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) — increased the price of petrol by ` 1.82 per litre on the 4th of Novemb...

foriegn despatches

This is what a global community looks like

Hamid Khan: I came to the US 32 years ago and realised that for immigrants, there were always issues of identity, race and adjustment that kept popping up. At a structural level, however, US policies became more anti-immigrant in the ’80s and ’90s. There was demonising of certain communities. On...

Social Agenda

Coffee & the Crowd

A blend of the real and virtual worlds A space where the crowd exchanges its ideas, voices its opinions and imparts its wisdom World leaders are suddenly taking a big shine to social media. Digital marketers may have been shouting themselves hoarse over the big three networks for years now, but tho...

Platform 1

Democratising the Land Question

India’s liberalising economy is creating a marked shift in its political culture Even as India’s growth story marches on unabated, policy makers continue to struggle with the modalities of how to address the needs of the poorest sections of society, especially communities living in rural areas....

Issue

Reining in the Idiot Box

Censorship, in one form or the other, is as old as time itself. Whenever moral policing has come into force, an answering wave of opposition has emerged. Books, paintings, cinema and the press — all have faced the axe of a censor at some point in time. Despite heavy criticism, the scissors of the ...

Looking Back

Planes to Path Labs

A twist of fate and failing eyesight made Dr Arvind Lal of Dr Lal Path Labs one of the leading medical entrepreneurs in India In 1949, after struggling for years as a pathologist in government labs, my father set up a laboratory in the heart of Delhi. And thus began my medical entrepreneurship. Ho...

Platform 2

Dynastic Secrecy Protected by India’s Tame Media

Fourth Estate and selective silence There was a nice irony when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Sonia Gandhi, the governing coalition’s leader, went to the Old Delhi’s Ramlila Grounds to celebrate the Dussehra Festival. The festival, of course, marks the triumph of good over evil, so it was ...

Good Karma

Mission:Safe Water

For team Arghyam, the joy of giving comes from being involved in seeing where that giving goes Sometimes an epiphany strikes in the unlikeliest of places — in Rohini Nilekani’s case it was the shower. It was in this everyday space that Nilekani, a former journalist, a philanthropist and an acti...

Reading Room

Reckless Endangerment

How greed and oversized ambitions led to the biggest housing crisis in America Reckless Endangerment chronicles the growth of the housing bubble which has brought the American economy to the brink of a meltdown. The authors are Gretchen Morgenson, a Pulitzer Prize winning business reporter and colu...

River of Smoke

Exceptional work by a writer extraordinaire; the Ibis Trilogy is richly detailed, deeply researched and finely crafted Amitav Ghosh's latest offering, River of Smoke, is the second installment of the Ibis Trilogy, a historical fiction series, based on the Opium War of 1839. If the first book of the...

Hitchhikers Guide

Where the World Ends

Patagonia offers the traveller blue glaciers, crisp windy days and great photo opportunities Argentina, Patagonia and the Andes — names that have always rang a bell and held a distinct charm. For a long time, I believed that I would get to visit Patagonia only through the pages of the National G...

Garnish

Tickling the Tastebuds

If he could, Nikhil Agarwal would wash the world with the warm and rich colours of wine I s it a club? Is it a platform? No, it’s “All Things Nice”. This one-year-old company defies simple definition. Like a cocktail, it’s a mix of all flavours: take half-a-club, half-a-platform and a bit ...