Politics

Shashank Shukla has been a fighter pilot, a corporate professional and an educator. Today, he is serving the country as a politician. His experience serves as an example for young people across India who are redefining service and traditional careers.

Make in India, Digital India, Smart Cities and more – 2015 was the year of some very interesting and important schemes and development plans. Let’s look back to find out where exactly we stand when it comes to implementation of those plans.

Amid a year of conflict and controversy, India had some good things going. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to global leaders, set in motion reforms and launched several initiatives to boost industry, employment and social welfare. While some of the progress was questionable, here are five positive things we identified from 2015.

Many shy, home-bound women have now transformed into active political leaders who are bringing a larger change in their community. Thanks to one poverty alleviation programme.

These three inspiring women have been elected as members of the male dominated district councils in tribal areas of northeast India, against all odds. From fighting patriarchal mindsets to encouraging more women participation, they are doing it all to work for development and women’s welfare in their regions.

Cashless transactions, accident and life cover, freeing entrepreneurs from the never ending paper work - these are just some of the good things about this union budget and how it can help the country to progress.

With the General Elections 2014 in full swing, all parties have come out with their manifestos. Here we present the salient commitments of each party on water-related issues, so that YOU can decide which party has the best view and therefore the best chance to solve our water worries.

Read to know how women at the panchayat level politics are bringing about change in real terms! From improving sex ratios to setting up schools and vocational training centres to tackling alcoholism, these gutsy ladies are proving that perhaps all Indian politics needs is a dose of woman power!

Women-led panchayats (village councils) in many parts of Jharkhand are proving to be a very successful model of governance, with the women leaders taking charge to address local and long-ignored issues like sustainable employment and equal pay for women, corruption in government schemes, women's property rights, irrigation and water supply, among others. Could this be an example for the rest of the country?

As curfew continues for the 12th straight day in Kishtwar based on the reports of communal violence, it might be difficult to imagine it as a place where Hindus and Muslims lived in perfect harmony, in fact much more than in many other parts of the country! But writer Yoginder Sikand recalls a time when he witnessed this communal bonhomie with his own eyes and felt it strongly in the many exceptional people that he met on his visits there.