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This is where to come for my take on life and times in the world’s largest democracy
12:09 UK time, Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Why don't Indians talk about inequality? Are Indian politicians really interested in reform? Why is the newspaper business in India thriving?
Beginning this week, I will be regularly flagging up some good reads on India from around the world. I am not endorsing any views contained in the pieces.
15:46 UK time, Thursday, 4 October 2012
Indian activist Arvind Kejriwal, who announced a new political party to fight corruption this week, promises to "change the system within a fortnight" if voted into power.
Many say there is a touching naiveté about such a pledge in a country where the trust between the people and politicians has frayed. The more optimistic say Mr Kejriwal's sheer audacity of hope is commendable.
16:29 UK time, Friday, 28 September 2012
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
As a recent audit by election watchdog Association For Democratic Reforms (ADR) shows, financing of political parties in India continues to be opaque despite the fact that they are forced to declare their incomes.
16:12 UK time, Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Good economics can sometimes make for bad politics.
India's beleaguered Congress-led ruling coalition in Delhi is discovering that, in its attempts to push through major economic reforms.
13:45 UK time, Monday, 17 September 2012
Is India really an attractive destination for global supermarkets?
On Friday, the government finally cleared a controversial plan to open up its lucrative retail sector to global supermarket chains in an effort to revive a flagging economy.
06:40 UK time, Tuesday, 11 September 2012
"There is a new intolerance in India," cartoonist Sudhir Tailang tells me on a phone line from his hotel room in Berlin, where he is holding an exhibition of his work.
"It's the intolerance of politicians, of the system, and it's a recent phenomenon."
18:20 UK time, Thursday, 6 September 2012
Why is India so touchy about criticism by a foreigner?
The latest outburst comes from minister Ambika Soni, who is enraged by a piece by the Washington Post on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
15:26 UK time, Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Soutik added analysis to:
India's coal scandal exposes its opaque policy making and brittle governance.
It also points, as many believe, to the rise of crony capitalism which has emerged as the biggest threat to the economy.
12:29 UK time, Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Should India abolish the death penalty?
The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the death penalty of Pakistani national Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, the sole surviving gunman of the 2008 attacks on Mumbai, has opened the debate once again.
07:25 UK time, Friday, 24 August 2012
There is a feeling of deja vu over the present impasse in the parliament.
Last year, the parliament sat for 73 days for over 800 hours. Around 30% of the time was lost due to disruptions, according to the watchdog PRS Legislative Research. A total of 54 bills were listed for consideration and passing into law. Only 28 were actually passed. Some 97 bills were pending when the parliament shut.
14:57 UK time, Friday, 17 August 2012
Is social media adding grist to the rumour mills that have triggered the exodus of workers from north-eastern states living in Bangalore and other cities in India?
By all accounts, yes. Threatening text messages sent in bulk - inexpensive in India - were the main vehicle of the insidious rumours that have swirled around in the city for the past two days, driving panic into the hearts of the tens of thousands of people from the north-eastern region living there. The federal government has panicked and banned bulk text messages for a fortnight to stop rumours.
04:32 UK time, Wednesday, 15 August 2012
Do India's corporate boardrooms lack diversity?
New research by D Ajit, Han Donker and Ravi Saxena of the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada, is offering some engaging clues.
11:12 UK time, Friday, 3 August 2012
Why do so many Indian parliamentarians need guns?
And why are guns being sold to MPs who have criminal cases pending against them?
05:08 UK time, Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Soutik added analysis to:
India is limping back to normal after power was restored to the three electricity grids that failed on Tuesday and affected 600 million people.
Supply was restored in most of the northern states, including the capital, Delhi, by Tuesday evening, while the east, including parts of the city of Calcutta, had to wait until early on Wednesday morning for power to be restored.
12:34 UK time, Tuesday, 31 July 2012
As India copes with a massive power breakdown for a second successive day, some interesting facts about the country's power situation to chew on:
13:44 UK time, Monday, 30 July 2012
Soutik added analysis to:
Monday's massive power cut is reportedly the first of its kind in more than a decade, affecting nearly 30% of India's population in nine northern states. At the root of this is the severe energy crisis facing India today.
The country is facing a huge supply shortfall this summer. A shortage of coal (most of India's energy is thermal), loss-making state electricity boards, the theft of power, a lack of transparency in fixing electricity charges and underperforming private distribution agencies mean that vast swathes of India live without electricity for several hours a day.
12:27 UK time, Monday, 23 July 2012
Are Indians some of the most physically unfit people in the world?
Well, doctors will tell you that with the country riding a diabetes and heart disease epidemic, most Indians are physically unfit. As the middle class swells, more Indians are leading desk-bound sedentary lives in cities, where pavements are scarce and there is no culture of walking. Fat-rich diets don't help matters.
18:40 UK time, Thursday, 19 July 2012
In the heart of Guwahati, a bustling city in the north-eastern state of Assam, a mob of men assault a teenage girl coming out of a bar as a journalist records it on his video camera and people gawk.
Gloating before the camera, the mob paws her, tries to strip her and burns her with cigarettes. The police arrive late - as is usually the case - and rescue the girl.
18:25 UK time, Wednesday, 4 July 2012
This picture tells the story of Pinki Pramanik, a female athlete arrested on charges of rape and facing claims she is actually male.
You can see a policeman groping the feted athlete in the full glare of cameras as she is led away after her arrest last month. Ms Pramanik looks harried and helpless. There are no woman constables in sight, as should have been the case.
00:54 UK time, Tuesday, 3 July 2012
"He is more than an acolyte, less than an equal", wrote Pulitzer-winning author Joseph Lelyveld of Hermann Kallenbach, a Jewish architect of Lithuanian background, who struck a deep friendship with Mahatma Gandhi during his time in South Africa.
In Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India, Mr Lelyveld describes the relationship between the men as "the most intimate, also ambiguous" one of Gandhi's lifetime. This was provocation enough for the government in the leader's native state of Gujarat to ban the book last year.
Before joining the BBC, Soutik worked with Indian newspapers and magazines and an international newspaper as a correspondent and an editor.
He was a Reuters Fellow at the University of Oxford.
Soutik has covered elections in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, the tsunami in India and Sri Lanka in 2005, and militancy in Kashmir, working mostly on a series of stories on the state of youth and women in the disputed region.
In 2005, he used a laptop link to connect BBC News readers from around the world to a people living in a Pashtun village in Afghanistan. He revisited the village two years later to do a similar project and to see how life had changed.
He loves blues and jazz, and believes Derek Trucks is the best and most innovative slide guitarist alive.
He is a big movie buff, with Michael Haneke, Martin Scorsese, the Coen Brothers, Woody Allen and Satyajit Ray among his favourite directors.
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