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Meeting Wangchuk, hearing out the mountain states
PUTTING Sonam Wangchuk and Ladakh on the cover was a no-brainer for us. We have been reporting on the Himalayas ...
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Speaking up for those remote islands
A country’s attitude to its environment defines how good a place it is to live, work and have a future. ...
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Jobs and skills: What crafts can do for rural areas
AMID the chatter about creating more jobs, the opportunities in promoting traditional skills and crafts tend to be overlooked. This ...
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Cities and water: Working with nature is best
POLITICIANS don’t think water except to give it away free. In the absence of political interest, administrators go on as ...
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The vote and after: A post-poll special issue
WHAT do the recent election results tell us? In our view people may care about India’s global aspirations, but not ...
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Village and city: One needs the other more than ever
ANOTHER election has come and gone without the problems of development getting the attention they deserve. Manifestoes, campaigns and speeches ...
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In search of new politics and better governance
The more politicians talk of change, the more similar they seem to become. Politics is in a rut. But a new ...
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What’s the future of our growing, dying cities
MUCH is made of how cities matter to the future of India. Not enough thought is given to whether cities ...
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Jobs on trees in Kerala and the ASER fine print
THE coconut harvesters featured in this month’s cover story are a good example of how rural employment can literally be ...
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Our 20th anniversary! Thank you, 20 times over!
PEOPLE express amazement that Civil Society should have survived 20 years as an independent magazine. Truth be told, we are ...
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Making peace not war a universal response
AS brutality in Gaza reaches a crescendo, a cry for peace goes out in street protests across the world. Ordinary ...
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Farmers need helping hand to deal with markets
WHEN the Kuttiattoor mango was given geographical indicator status there was reason to celebrate. Its unique qualities had been documented ...
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Value of patience: Why It took SEWA all of 13 years
COMPLEX problems need time to solve. Voluntary organizations in a hurry to deliver outcomes tend to end up nowhere. Our ...
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Getting design right makes everything much better
Design matters THERE is a lot of recent policy talk on preschool development. For the majority of India’s ...
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Drugs, addiction and the Green Revolution
Punjab’s problems have been in plain sight for a long time and it should be a reason for serious concern ...
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Essays are insightful and we bring them back
WHEN we began our magazine in 2003, we used to publish an essay on the last editorial page — which is ...
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Officers with a difference deserve to be recognized
IT shouldn’t be the role of the media to cheer the government. On the contrary the government should be rigorously ...
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Farming plus: Much can be done for rural incomes
A rethink on the farm sector is long overdue. The view that people will inevitably have to be taken off ...
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Cities need expertise and better governance
Our cover story this month is an example of small but important efforts that can be taken to improve Indian ...
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On turning 19 with all its joys and many challenges
TO be able to go the distance is always a good feeling. Completing 19 years for us in Civil Society ...
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Looking back and ahead in another difficult year
As 2023 is ushered in, it is time to look back and ahead. The past year has been a tough ...
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On the wild side: Wildlife, potholes and construction
INDIA is teeming with biodiversity. Animals, birds, insects, plants, trees, water bodies — there is more than one can hope ...
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Past matters: Hyderabad an example for other cities
CITIES make themselves noticeable in many ways. Heritage brought alive and made accessible is one of them. This month we ...
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Reviving rivers, justice for Bilkis, cookies from insects
HEALTHY rivers make for a healthy economy. But how does one bring ailing rivers back to health? With love and ...
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Living for others, cheetahs, free power, cancer
WE met Ram Gidoomal in the early years of our magazine and so it has been a long time since ...
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The plant world and what it means to better healthcare
SO much attention has our page on medicinal plants attracted from readers over the past year that we decided to ...
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Dogs at home and dogs on the streets
THERE have been dogs at home from as far back as one can remember. They were always part of the ...
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Summertime and the living this year hasn't been easy
OUR June issue goes to press with an intimidating summer upon us. It is not just the heat but power ...
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Least-developed districts and their aspirations
ON more than one occasion, as we would go about our stories, we would hear someone or the other say: ...
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Frontline people we are proud to know
BLESSED are the people who serve in remote areas. They are self-motivated and get little institutional encouragement. Those who benefit ...
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Civil Society Public Health Initiative
THE pandemic is a reminder of the need to quickly strengthen our public healthcare system. An elaborate structure exists and ...
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We are all of 18! It's great to be around and growing!
IF you asked us how 18 years have passed in our magazine, we would have some difficulty telling you. It ...
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Getting the story straight from the source
We have since the inception of this magazine worked with a broad definition of civil society. It covers anyone making ...
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The whole problem with standards
WE can’t stop talking about what a great future the Indian economy has. But how quickly we arrive in the ...
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When justice is strained: The sad case of Stan Swamy
THE problems with our justice system are there for all to see. They have been widely identified through PILs, in ...
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Putting out our magazine in the shadow of the virus
IT has been more than a year and the pandemic continues to serve up surprises. Losing friends and worrying about ...
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Why we cover politics and why we don’t
OUR readers tell us that they don’t want us to cover politics and politicians. They would much rather we put ...
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Figure out green issues quickly
THE flood in Chamoli and the controversy that has followed are reminders that we are running late in figuring out ...
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Lessons from farmers: reforms need buy-in
THE long agitation over the Union government’s new farm laws shows that reforms by stealth or force don’t work, not ...
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Put strong public healthcare system above all else
DECEMBER 2020
A pandemic may not be the right time to judge healthcare systems. The best can collapse under the burden of ...
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Stop worrying and keep going is our mantra
AUGUST 2020
THE collapse of the economy and the oppressive nature of the pandemic leave us with few choices. One can either ...
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Beating the lockdown
July 2020
Lockdown stories around us are invariably of the hard-luck variety. It has been a punishing time for everyone, especially so for ...
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One more issue under lockdown
June 2020
This is the third issue of Civil Society brought out in lockdown conditions. It means we can’t print and distribute, ...
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Keeping on going in the shadow of the virus
May 2020
The coronavirus pandemic is a great story. As journalists we have our work cut out for us. But how do ...
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Fringe to the fore
April 2020
Consumers invariably end up taking what they are given. Someone somewhere shapes their decisions even as they may live ...
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Rethinking healthcare
March 2020
Public health services need a big push. A larger spend is required, but it is not merely a matter of funding. ...
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Lurching along
February 2020
Just when India should be rapidly dealing with its many problems and coasting into a robust future, as it indeed ...
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Take it back
January 2020
Widespread opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and plans for a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) is reason ...
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Dharamshala matters
December 2019
You might ask why we chose to go to Dharamshala to cover a film festival and that too as our ...
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Customise, localise
November 2019
Environmental solutions are becoming more precise and targeted and therefore more impactful. Water harvesting is an example. For a long ...
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Civil Society's Sweet 16
September 2019
The running of a small media enterprise comes with many challenges but the journalistic satisfaction in bringing out our magazine ...
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Tracking cities
August 2019
Cities have a major role to play in India’s economy, but there is little that we can say we reliably ...
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Doctors for all
July 2019
Finding a doctor has become increasingly difficult. Of course, there are doctors everywhere and their number is also growing. But ...
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Politics and beyond
June 2019
In this magazine we prefer to keep ourselves out of politics. Of course, as journalists, there would be no question ...
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The business of farming
May 2019
Cooperatives come with well-known frailties. In many ways, Campco is no exception. It was set up to serve the interests ...
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Blessed is the small business for it is the future
April 2019
The agrarian crisis has everyone worried. But the coolest solutions seem to come from farmers themselves. We have found this ...
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A slow churn
March 2019
An economy on the move needs to invest in social change. The problem is that it is not something that ...
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Biennale and more
February 2019
Free-falling spaces enrich a democracy. The Biennale held in Kochi, which is featured as our cover story this month, is ...
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The NE picture
January 2019
Much has been said about developing the states in the Northeast of the country and large amounts of money have ...
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