Stories of violent conflicts abound in contemporary India. Hardly any day passes when media reports do not capture some form of collective conflict, either between communities or vis-à-vis the state machinery or both. To a casual observer, such persistent conflict may appear to be dangerous for democracy. Quite the contrary, some degree of manifest and vocal conflict is a measure of functioning democracy in society, more so in a society like India which has numerous horizontal and vertical cleavages.

There is now a growing social and political acceptance of private sector contributions to India's development. However, many recent big-ticket corruption scandals have brought into public glare the growing menace of crony capitalism. In addition, large-scale protests by tribal and other rural communities against displacement from their land, habitat and livelihoods have further painted business as a menacing predator.

There is unusual heavy rain in many parts of the world in the past month; evidence for changing climate patterns?

On my way to work the other morning, I traveled on a part of the highway. When the car was moving on a clear road, it almost crashed into a wheel-barrow placed on the topmost lane by a sweeper who himself was just a few yards away. There was no advance warning that such a ‘barrier’ was about to come ahead (absence of systems). It wasn’t obvious why such an activity cannot be done at a time which is not peak rush hour (poor systems)?