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

NEWSNOTES: CAPLOOKS

Cross Connection
Delhi: There are many ministers who like the ring in the words "beauty" and "it". Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan is one of them. Recently, visiting the BJP headquarters, Mahajan told his friends that when he started using a cell phone in 1994 some Sangh Parivar enthusiasts taunted him for "behaving like a Congressman". But now not only does India have five million mobile connections but every party leader, minister and worker is also using the device. It's like, he went on, India producing a Miss World, a Miss Universe and a Miss Asia-Pacific in a single year. Where's the connection, you might ask.

Putting on Airs
Bangalore: The international air show at Yelahanka near Bangalore, organised by the Defence Ministry, had a conspicuous absentee at its inauguration on February 7. Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna apparently boycotted the function because his name was not mentioned on the invitation card. An embarrassed Defence Minister George Fernandes personally phoned Krishna's home that morning to invite a "hurt" Krishna but was curtly told that the "CM is having a bath". Fernandes waited in vain for his call to be returned.

Dramatic Persona
Lucknow: Critics see a gimmick in everything that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh does these days. It's all a melodrama, say the Thakur's detractors. They point out, for example, how at his daily janata darshan recently, Singh touched the feet of his old teacher and took him inside his residence. And how last week when Singh was given a crown of gold at a public meeting, he promptly donated it to a poor widow. But for the BJP leader, the cruellest blow perhaps is that his foes liken his ways to former prime minister V.P. Singh's. Tsk, tsk.

Protectionist Policy
Hyderabad: The NSG drew up plans to deploy a tighter security cordon around Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu following intelligence reports of an increase in perceived threats to his life from the outlawed People's War Group. But Naidu worries this will cut him off from the masses. Bravado or quintessential populism?

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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.