It's About Politics
The limits on Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha's budget this year are political. He has the prescription to put the economy on a high growth track, but hampered by vested interests, vote-bank politics and stubborn opposition parties, he is unlikely to deliver.

The Rot in Farming
Falling prices, stagnating production and diminishing returns are brewing an unparalleled crisis in farmlands across India. Ironically, the alarming situation has arisen despite an unprecedented 12 consecutive normal monsoons.

Creeping Paralysis
Doubts over Keshubhai Patel's fitness to rule are growing after his government failed to provide basic relief like tents to those affected by the earthquake. Despite having speedily restored electricity and water, which earned praise from some international agencies, criticism over Patel's poor marshalling of resources continues.

Artless Artistry
The festival tried to exhibit the widest selection rather than the best, making it a disappointing show.

Stillness of Change
The legendary bamboo curtain is lifting to reveal that Myanmar isn't quite the "fascist Disneyland" it is made out to be. The winds of change have brought back English as the medium of instruction and Aung San Suu Kyi is talking to the military. After prolonged isolation, Yangon wants to face the world, but on its own terms.

Making It Happen
John Buchanan gives an exclusive insight into what it takes to coach the world's most successful team. He also enumerates what
he feels will be the Indian strengths that the Aussies
will have to watch out for.

Strategic Partners
As emphasis shifts from relief to rehabilitation, Care Today is selecting regions to focus on and NGOs to help it channelise aid. The involvement of victims is integral to the plan so that their dignity remains intact.

EYECATCHERS

Instrumental Itch

It's not the first time that he's "making" music. back In 1969, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt invented the Mohan Veena instrument. Today, a little over three decades and a Grammy award (for A Meeting By The River with Ry Cooder in 1994) later, he's done it again, with the Vishwa Veena, a "blend of the traditional veena and the harp", which he will play in his forthcoming album Music For The Soul. But if you thought that was all, the "itching-to-create" Bhatt has plans to invent yet another instrument that he's now calling the "Vishwa Mohan Veena". What next? The "Vishwa Mohan Bhatt Veena" perhaps.

Quite the Storm

Too bad the film is still lying with the censors in India. Jagmohan Mundhra's Bawandar (Sandstorm) has just fetched Fire and Earth girl Nandita Das an award for Best Actress at the Santa Monica International Film Festival in California. Das, who plays a low-caste woman fighting for justice after being gang-raped in the film, was shooting for Mahesh Manjrekar's Pita when Mundhra broke news of the win. "She was ecstatic when she called me at three that morning and kept saying she could not believe it," recalls an elated Mundhra. The ecstasy, it seems, is mutual.

Yes or No?

The controversy isn't over yet. The Tamil Nadu press went to town last week about Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly's sly rendezvous with former southern film star Nagma in a remote Shiva temple at Sri Kalahasti in Andhra Pradesh. The escapade made top headlines. But, says Nagma, "We are just friends." Ganguly's father Chandidas Ganguly is more careful: "I've not seen anything with my own eyes, so I've no option but to believe my son who says it's not true." The guessing game will go on.

Birth Rights

We were in the wilderness about this one. When Virginia McKenna starred in the 1960s Oscar-winning Born Free, it not only made her a top Hollywood star, but also "inspired" her to found the Born Free Foundation in the UK. In Delhi for the Venu Menon Memorial Lecture, McKenna, who's acted in The King and I with Yul Brynner, even visited the zoo. The lady, on the "private conservationists": "Their pockets are empty but their hearts are overflowing." Their hearts were won.

MetroScape
Charitable Mood
In the backdrop of murky allegations about underworld connections, philanthropy by the Bollywood badshahs comes a little more easily.
more...

Looking Glass

Delhi: Lifestyle Store

Delhi: Film Festival

Mumbai: Restaurant

The Indian Navy's International Fleet Review was a fine effort at naval diplomacy which the Government would do well to build on, writes INDIA TODAY's Principal Correspondent Sandeep Unnithan
in Despatches.

"The only obvious competition is in bhangra," say the Pakistani duo of the music group, Strings, in an exclusive interview with INDIA TODAY's Sonia Faleiro.
Interviews.