The Truth About Ourselves
The human genome sequence has been completed and shows some surprising findings. Despite having one-third less genes than estimated, human beings are still very complex. With access to disease genes, medicine and diagnostics will be revolutionised. However, this will also raise ethical questions on cloning and genetic privacy.

Hope In Hell
Four weeks after the earthquake, Gujarat is still coming to terms with the devastation. True grit is emerging from the rubble but it will be some time before lives are rebuilt. INDIA TODAY's teams went out across these death zones, capturing stories which record this renewal.

Simmer Time

Profitable Loss
36 With over 90,000 employees opting for the VRS scheme, PSU banks are set to get over their problem of overstaffing. But is it going to make banks more competitive in this age of automation? Besides, it is also going to cost more than Rs 7,500 crore and will deprive the banks of skilled workers.

Paper Money

Spreading Terror
The attacks on Delhi's Red Fort,
the Srinagar airport and the city's police control room show the Lashkar-e-Toiba is increasingly catching the Indian security forces unawares-and emerging as the most daring terrorist group from Pakistan.

Face Off
It's David Vs Goliath as India play an Australian demolition squad at home. What makes the Aussies tick and how can India take them on?

Cricketwatch:
Ashley Mallett

STATES: WEST BENGAL

Gun Culture: Who is the Victim

Ghising has adeptly countered all challenges to his leadership in the hills for 12 years and he doesn't fear his former friends much (Subba was the chief of the GNLF's armed wing and Rai was his private secretary who chafed at the boss "playing raja with public funds"). It's their allies he should fear. Subba, whose first wife is a Naga, is known to be close to the NSCN (Isak-Muivah), the militant Kamtapuris and is alleged to have ISI links. Giri openly admits to having "good ties" with the All Bodo Students Union and the All Jharkhand Students Union. Last November, in a shoot-out in Tinkatarey in Kalimpong, the police killed an insurgent believed to belong to the NSCN. In the Pankhabari ambush, one of the gunmen shot dead was traced to Manipur. Now there are reports that a new group gets help from the Maoist rebels of Nepal.

LYING LOW: Immediately after the ambush, GNLF cabres attacked Ghising's adversaries. Giri (left) is under police protection while Rai surveys the damage to his cars

More disturbingly, these organisations are bringing in lethal weapons. The police seized ak-47 rifles in both Tinkatarey and Pankhabari. Besides, there's been an influx of AK-56s, Chinese grenades and communication equipment, not seen even at the peak of the Gorkhaland movement in 1986-87. "Ghising brought the gun culture to the hills," says an opposition leader. "Now he himself is a victim."

But is he a victim? The indefinite bandh after he was attacked demonstrated his hold over the hills. This is important in view of the West Bengal assembly polls. He has had a cosy relationship with the ruling CPI(M), even facilitating wins for the Left party in both the 1998 and 1999 general elections. When CPRM leader and sitting MP R.B. Rai took on the CPI(M), Ghising called for a vote boycott on the specious "no-man's land" issue. "He made sure, with money and musclepower, that only 1.5 lakh voters out of a total of eight lakh turned out to cast their ballot," says CPRM Central Committee member Kalyan Goswami. "Naturally, our candidate lost." Now Ghising is being wooed by both the ruling front and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee. While Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya flew down Home Secretary Sourin Roy and Director-General of Police Dipak Sanyal to talk to Ghising, and has pledged a probe into the ambush, Mamata condemned the attack-and sent flowers. With the CPI(M) on the defensive in north Bengal where its popularity has been affected by the Kamtapur movement, the three seats from the hills could prove crucial.

"We will not call off the bandh till the police catches at least one of the attackers," vows Kurseong MLA Shanta Chhetri. Ghising himself has no such faith in the state's law enforcers. He proclaimed from the hospital bed that when he is better, he will go to Kolkata to seek the state Government's permission to deal with the miscreants himself. In other words, he will let his men loose after all. And that doesn't augur well for peace in the hills.

MetroScape
Delhi On My Mind...
I'm very flattered to have this act of 'piracy' take place," laughs William Dalrymple, as extracts from his engrossing travelogue City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi were interpreted by photographer Agnes Montanari and art historian Nathalie Trouveroy in an exhibition.
more...

Looking Glass

Delhi: Restaurant

Delhi: Exhibition

Mumbai: Exhibition

"I was very much against the idea of India," says William Dalrymple, author, The City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi. In conversation with INDIA TODAY's Sonia Faleiro, he talks about his old girlfriend, Delhi and his "enormously exciting" next book, The White Moghuls in Interviews.