Victims Of The Crash Small investors like Girish Patel of Ahmedabad have lost much of their life's savings in the stock market crash. A profile of some middle-class investors who burnt their fingers.

Villains Of The Crash SEBI Chairman D.R. Mehta along with bankers, and brokers must share the responsibility for allowing yet another scam by their acts of commission, and omission.

What's Next For The Economy?
For the third time since 1997, a combination of sliding stock markets, political instability, and global slowdown threatens to turn the hopes of an economic take-off into despair.

Numbed By Disgrace
The BJP, still in shock, begins life after the Tehelka expose with a new president and a combination of hope and bluster. A swot analysis.

"I'd choose Musharraf"
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto talks about her relations with her country's politicians, Indo-Pak relations and Kashmir in an interview to Aaj Tak.

Official Obstacle
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi eggs on workers to go on a strike that is adversely affecting production, and profits.

Fire Fighting
As the Tehelka controversy slows the defence deals, the Government takes steps to revamp the set-up and streamline the weapon procurement system.

CAPLOOKS

Not Out Yet

Delhi: For a man supposedly in the doghouse, Vincent George is doing pretty well. After the CBI filed a disproportionate assets FIR against him, the party is rallying around Sonia Gandhi's personal secretary. He now has the privilege of Youth Congress greenhorns maintaining a round-the-clock vigil outside his D/109 Satya Marg residence. Not to talk of the stream of high-profile ministers and MLAs visiting him and chief ministers phoning him. Even his boss was sympathetic. While George opted out of Sonia's Hong Kong trip, he was allowed to see her off at the airport. A political statement there?

The Language Weapon

Delhi: After going to Bellary in 1999 to take on Sonia Gandhi, BJP's Sushma Swaraj will now campaign in West Bengal to fight both the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress. Swaraj's trademark style being to intersperse campaign speeches with long passages in the local language-she taught herself quite a bit of Kannada during the Bellary campaign-she has now engaged a Bengali tutor. The teacher bought a bagful of primers for his "student" from the recently concluded Bengali Book Fair in the capital.

His Open Sky Policy

Chandigarh: Everything is official about it: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's penchant for air travel has cost the state exchequer Rs 11.66 crore. Since he came to power four years ago, the Akali supremo has been kicking up lots of dust-and controversy-with his helicopter flights citing security risks involved in road travel. Though Badal's travel bill was placed in the Assembly last week, it didn't reveal the number of times he has been sky-bound for unofficial functions at official expense.

Business Holiday

Chandigarh: Om Prakash Chautala's determination to portray himself as a business-savvy leader will soon see him heading a delegation to the US, Canada and the UK. Though advisers insist he means business, the trip's timing shows it would also offer a break from the searing heat of the summer and post-Tehelka
NDA politics.

MetroScape

Collaborative Class
Italian designer and architect Tarshito Nicola Stripoli has been busy rearranging world geography.
more...

Looking Glass

Delhi Salon: Jacques Dessange

Mumbai Theatre:
IMAX dome

Mumbai Restaurant:
Watering Hole

The ambitious Anandgarh township proposal stirs another round of controversy as a high court order foils the Punjab Government's plans of acquiring land for the project. INDIA TODAY's Special Correspondent Ramesh Vinayak reports in
Despatches.