Health Crisis: India's Wealthier States Are Showing An Alarming Decline In Immunisation Process

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

The warning signs from the latest National Family Health Survey data have gone unnoticed so far.

A fair amount of media attention has been given to the resurgence of diphtheria in Kerala, which has been attributed to some Muslims rejecting immunisation efforts due to misinformation. However, a much more dangerous and widespread trend of declining immunisation rates as evidenced by the recent National Family Health Survey 4 data, seems to have gone entirely unnoticed.

Chennai 'Oil Leak' Contaminated Ground Water 4 Years Ago Hasn’t Been Cleaned Yet

By VINITA RAM | INNLIVE

Residents of Tondiarpet in Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s constituency say they don’t have the money to fight the case any longer and want an immediate solution.

Four years after an oil pipeline leak contaminated the groundwater in North Chennai’s Tondiarpet neighbourhood, those affected by the contamination are on the brink of despair after repeated appeals to authorities hasn’t led to a clean-up.

Analysis: A Dubious Encounter In Telangana Revives Memories Of A Decade-Old Mystery Over Sohrabuddin Case

By NEWS KING | INNLIVE

The killing of a Maoist renegade-turned-extortionist near Hyderabad by police raises uncomfortable questions.

A hushed silence can perhaps best describe the mood inside the Telangana police, 48 hours after Mohammed Nayeemuddin, a Maoist renegade-turned-extortionist, was gunned down in Shadnagar, 50 km from Hyderabad, on Monday.

An Alien Fish Is Wreaking Havoc In Krishna River After It Was Linked To Godavari River

By KRISHNA RAO | INNLIVE

Fishermen say the non-native rakashi fish, which no one wants to buy, is damaging their nets and keeping other fish away.

The linking of the Godavari and the Krishna rivers in Andhra Pradesh, which was inaugurated last year, seems to have led to an unforseen problem.

Fishermen in Guntur district’s Tadepally village on the banks of the Prakasam Barrage, which straddles the Krishna, are complaining that a species of fish,

Investigation: The Toil Of 20,000 Child Workers Are Behind The Healthy Exports Of 'Illegal Mica Mines'

By NEETA BHALLA | INNLIVE

At least seven child labourers have died in the mines since June, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation has found.

In the depths of India’s illegal mica mines, where children as young as five work alongside adults, lurks a dark, hidden secret – the cover-up of child deaths with seven killed in the past two months, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation has revealed.

Adivasis: Cheated Of The Constitution

By MOHAN GURUSWAMY | INNLIVE

Tribal people who account for 8.2% of India’s population can be broadly classified into three groupings. The first grouping consists of populations who predate the Indo-Aryan migrations. These are termed by many anthropologists as the Austro-Asiatic-speaking Australoid people. The Central Indian Adivasis belong to this grouping. 

Telangana Medical Exam Paper Leak Points At Corruption In TRS Govt

By LIKHAVEER | INNLIVE

`Dear, you have been shrtlstd for MBBS counselling in govt/Private medical colleges of Europe/Ukraine, No donation. For appointment call: 80107xxxxx'.

This was an innocuous SMS that landed in the inbox of several students appearing for the medical exam entrance test (EAMCET) in Telangana. This was followed by a phone call from a woman who claimed to represent a consultancy firm.

Swachch Bharat's Mothers, Babies In Peril: 343 Hospitals In 6 States Struggle With Hygiene, Toilets

By LIKHAVEER | INNLIVE

Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan is acheived by Modi's government but the reality is quite different,  as many as 19% of the facilities did not have wash basins near toilets and patient-care areas.

Half the post-natal wards of primary healthcare centres lacked toilets, as did 60% of larger community health centres in Madhya Pradesh, which has a higher maternal mortality rate than war-torn Syria.Open defecation was allowed within 38% and open urination in 60% of health facilities (PHCs, CHCs, area and district hospitals) in Odisha’s Ganjam district, which has the same maternal mortality rate as the impoverished African country of Gabon.

Superstar Rajinikanth, Star Cricketer Tendulkar, Star Politician Modi: Are Indians Prone To 'Celebrity Worship Syndrome'?

By NISHI KHAN | INNLIVE

The euphoria of epic proportions surrounding Kabali, which was released on Friday, poses one important question: Why do Indians have such an astonishing penchant for idolisation? 

Be it Rajinikanth or Sachin Tendulkar or Narendra Modi-or Indira Gandhi in the past-Indians, especially those who live south of the Vindhyas, stretch their adulation for their icons to extremes.

Telangana Is Struggling To Contain Primate Problem – And It's Not Monkey Business

By RADHAKRISHNA | INNLIVE

The state has planned an afforestation drive and a rescue and rehab centre that it hopes will help contain the problem, but scepticism abounds.

On July 1, residents of Venkatapuram village in Telangana’s Mahbubnagar district found themselves under attack, their homes invaded, their property destroyed and their supplies taken away. The attackers in question were a group ofErra Kothulu which means red-faced monkeys, which is what the Indian rhesus macaque is called in these parts.

Opinion: Is Holding Simultaneous Elections For Lok Sabha And State Assemblies Necessarily A Good Idea?

By M H AHSSAN| INNLIVE

Will doing so address the real challenges of governing? What is the evidence from other countries?

The idea of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies has gained some ground recently. In December 2015, a parliamentary standing committee recommended a move in this direction by streamlining elections into two phases – one concurrent with Lok Sabha elections, the second in the mid-term of the Lok Sabha.

IT Graduates Aplenty In Hyderabad, But Where Are The 'Skilled'?

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

A steady 6% to 9% year-on-year increase in workforce notwithstanding, Hyderabad's IT sector is faced with a severe crunch - that of skilled resources.

Experts rue how a majority of the nearly 2 lakh students graduating from city engineering colleges every year do not have technical expertise - particularly in fast-growing fields such as cyber security and analytics - thus creating a huge demand-supply gap.

No End For 'Water War' Of Telangana And Andhra Pradesh, But Can They Win The Battle?

By RADHAKRISHNA | INNLIVE

Several irrigation projects in both states are stuck over disagreements on water-sharing, even as drought-like conditions persist year after year.

Late in May, tensions erupted once again in Andhra Pradesh’s Rayalaseema region over the Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme, an inter-state barrage to supply water to Andhra, Karnataka and Telangana.

Farmers from Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool – one of four districts that form the water-starved Rayalaseema – are up in arms against those in neighbouring Mahabubnagar in Telangana, both of which are fed by the irrigation project.

Is Telangana CM KCR Redrawing New State's District Boundaries To Fix His Political Opponents?

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE
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There’s criticism that the state's 14 new districts are being decided on the Telangana chief minister’s whims instead of on a scientific study.

Two years after being carved out of united Andhra Pradesh, Telangana is feeling division pangs once again.

On Friday, a highway blockade that was started by people agitating for a separate district in Telangana got out of hand when the protestors, realising that their demands may not be met, damaged two buses and set one on fire.

Telugu Desam Party Supremo & AP CM Chandrababu Naidu, Still Loyal To NDA For Now Even As Discontentment With Narendra Modi Grows

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

TDP Supremo Chandrababu Naidu was rarely seen without a laptop in the last years of his previous term as the Andhra Pradesh chief minister. Once, when I called him 'Laptop' Naidu, he took it as a compliment. He constantly monitored sundry schemes on a laptop and exuded supreme confidence that he would sweep the 2004 elections. He lost. And it took him 10 years to return as the CM.

Naidu is a changed man now. It's not because, instead of a laptop, he now has an iPad as a constant companion and he talks of 'iCloud' and 'file-sharing' to review his government's work.

Telangana Slips Into Agitation 2.0 As KCR Plans 'Kejriwal Act' At Delhi

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

Telangana state is geared up to agitation 2.0 demanding the proper bifurcation of the state on certain long pending issues.

Two years after he secured the state of Telangana after a 13-year-long struggle, K Chandrasekhar Rao will wear the hat of a protester once again. The chief minister of Telangana now plans to do an Arvind Kejriwal by sitting on a dharna in the country's capital, to protest against the delay in bifurcation of the High court of Hyderabad.

Detentions Of Islamic State Terror Suspects Leave Hyderabadi Muslims Shaken And Kept The Community On Edge

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

'The mindset of the police force and the media is such that the guilt of a Muslim is taken for granted,' complains one man.

It's been a tumultuous couple of days for one family in Hashmabad area in Hyderabad. Early on Wednesday morning, the National Investigation Agency picked up brothers Habeeb Mohammed and Abdul Qader for having suspected links with an Islamic State terror module.

India Is Slowly Cleaving Into Two Countries – A Richer, Older South And A Poorer, Younger North

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

Support to the elderly is fraying in India. But no one appears prepared for this – not families, not companies, not the government.

At traffic intersections, drivers in Delhi tune out the brown-haired, snot-nosed waifs who tap and scratch insistently at their car windows. Sometimes, the children are joined by equally ragged parents, mostly in their 20s, trying to sell cheap Chinese-made junk – from plastic flowers to cellphone and steering-wheel covers. The defining feature of destitution in North India appears to be youth.

Indian Jews: This Little Known Minority Community With A Rich Heritage - 1

By LIKHAVEER | INNLIVE

(Editor's note: This is the first in a two-part series on the Jewish community in India)

Last week the Maharashtra state government bestowed minority status on a minuscule and ancient community - the Indian Jews. This official recognition by Maharashtra, the second state to do so after West Bengal, is imperative to the very survival of its Jewish community. Maharashtra (part of erstwhile Bombay State) has always been home to a majority of Indian Jews, it today has 2466 Jews out of the all-India total of 4,650 Jews.

AP Govt Is Leaving Hyderabad Capital: Why June 27 Has Become Such A Flashpoint For 13,324 Govr Employees?

By RADHAKRISHNA | INNLIVE

What prompted Chandrababu Naidu to order his state government to move lock, stock and barrel from the capital city that it has rights over for eight more years?

June 27 is D-Day, as far as the Andhra Pradesh government is concerned. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has asked 13,324 employees of the state government Secretariat and various heads of department to shift from Hyderabad to the transitional headquarters at Guntur by this date. They are expected to move to and begin functioning from near Amaravati, the ambitious new capital being built near Guntur and Vijayawada.