By A Representative   The 12th Dr. Ajay Khare Memorial Lecture held in Bhopal on March 7 highlighted the continuing challenges of hunger, tuberculosis and malnutrition in India, with public health experts stressing that these issues remain central to the country’s health crisis despite the availability of medicines and government programmes.

By Prakash Meshram*  Gondia district in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, is a land of lakes, forests, farmlands, and simple, earnest people. In Devalgaon, a small village nestled in the Arjuni Morgaon taluka of this district, lives Smt. Anju Markand Kapgate, whose struggle for survival was much like that of countless other rural women: limited resources, insufficient income, and an uncertain future. Yet she transformed her family’s fate through sheer determination and the steadfast support of the Umed Abhiyan. Today, her name is spoken with great respect not just in Devalgaon but across the surrounding region. This is the inspiring success story of CK Griha Masala Udyog.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan*  Friendship has always been one of the most powerful influences in a child’s life. Long before academic success or career aspirations take shape, friendships begin shaping how children speak, behave, and see the world. Psychologists and child development researchers consistently emphasize that peer relationships play a crucial role in emotional growth, social competence, and character development. In today’s rapidly changing world, however, the nature of childhood friendships is evolving. Technology, busy lifestyles, and shifting parenting approaches have altered how children form and maintain relationships. Understanding these changes and responding to them wisely is essential for parents who want to guide their children toward healthy, meaningful friendships.

By Gajanan Khergamker   In the sweltering haze of April 1858, under the cover of a moonless night, Convict No. 276, Dudhnath Tewari—a sepoy branded a mutineer in the fires of 1857—slipped the chains of his exile. He was not alone. Led by the wily Aga, a fellow prisoner claiming knowledge of hidden paths, Tewari joined a desperate band of ninety men fleeing the nascent penal colony on Ross Island. Their destination was uncertain: perhaps freedom across the treacherous Bay of Bengal, perhaps Burma’s distant shores. But the Andamans, those emerald sentinels of isolation, had other plans.

By A Representative   On the occasion of World Wildlife Day 2026, a powerful and detailed representation has been submitted to the highest echelons of the Indian government, including the the Prime Minister and the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (EF&CC), who are chairman and vice-chairman respectively of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL). Authored by Shankar Sharma, a Power & Climate Policy Analyst from Sagara in the Western Ghats, the communication levels a serious indictment against the current state of environmental governance. It accuses authorities of celebrating the day for biodiversity while simultaneously sanctioning projects that lead to the "annihilation of biodiversity" within the country's Protected Areas (PAs).

By Bharat Dogra  Seventy-year-old Jaitram, who previously worked as a mason, fell while working. The injury he sustained continues to cause him pain, and he is no longer able to work. His eyesight had deteriorated but improved somewhat after a cataract operation, though he still needs cataract surgery on his other eye. His wife Khamani has been very helpful to him, but a new emergency recently emerged in the family when she became very ill. Her typhoid fever worsened, and she had to seek treatment at several places for about three months. This experience has left them exhausted.

By Parineeta Dandekar   “Quae loca fabulosus lambit Hydaspes“ (What places the magnificent Jhelum washes!) - Ode 1.22, Horace, Circa 3rd BC With these lines, M. Aurel Stein began his authoritative Ancient Geography of Kashmir , written in 1899. Stein, deeply smitten by Kashmir and its rivers, was the first to translate Kalhana’s epic Rajatarangini —literally River of the Kings—into English.

By Gajanan Khergamker  The convoy assembled with the studied precision that officialdom frequently deploys when it wishes to signal the reassuring presence of regulation. Vehicles lined up methodically, engines idling beneath the humid Andaman sky, as the procession prepared to enter the dense forest corridor along the Andaman Trunk Road (ATR) that cuts through the Jarawa Forest Reserve between Port Blair and Diglipur, passing through Jirkatang, Baratang, Middle Strait, Kadamtala and Rangat, among others.

By A Representative   A coalition of civil rights groups under the banner of the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) on Saturday called for the immediate release of women political prisoners lodged in jails across India under stringent security laws, particularly the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), saying many have spent years in prison without their trials reaching conclusion.