Tuesday, 17 August 2004, 1700 hrs

NATION & STATES
Manipur crisis: Centre extends
olive branch to agitators
Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the government was willing to talk with "anybody ... willing to talk to us" to bring back normalcy to the sensitive border state of Manipur...

BUSINESS & ECONOMY
Tata buys out NatSteel Ltd
The Tata Iron and Steel Company Ltd (Tisco) has purchased Singapore’s NatSteel Ltd, the city state’s lone steel mill...

FEATURED STORIES

The Hindu
A question of identity
In Britain there is now a new "class" of Asians and blacks, almost as xenophobic and intolerant as the white racists who once intimidated their parents and grandparents, says HASAN SUROOR

Financial Times
The bureaucracy crippling India
Jawaharlal Nehru wanted a regulatory framework; the bureaucrats created a thousand controls and killed our industrial revolution at birth, writes GURCHARAN DAS, former chief executive officer of Procter & Gamble India

Asia Times
Rushdie turns India's air blue
In arguing that Muslims are avid consumers of pornography, Indian author Salman Rushdie has invoked bitter debate over whether porn is an instrument of exploitation and imprisonment, or a natural illustrator of sexuality's deepest truths, says SIDDHARTH SRIVASTAVA

Rediff
'Every culture believes in some magic'
PETER LAMONT, award-winning magician, pseudo-psychic, historian, parapsychologist, and Arts and Humanities Research Board research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, talks about the Indian rope trick

The Pioneer
Star of freedom
Aurobindo (1872-1950) was a freedom fighter, a visionary, and a prophet who clearly envisaged the destiny of India long before it won freedom.

TOP PICKS

OPINION
J&K: Once again. on the edge (Hindu)
Surge in violence (Deccan Herald)
End of POTA (Deccan Herald)
Making a martyr of a rapist (DH)
Price of flirting (Pioneer)
Pre-poll Afghan scenario (Dawn)

INSCRIPTIONS

South Indian Inscriptions

Original texts from four states, transcribed from a definitive work published by the Archaeological Survey of India

Volume 10
Telugu Inscriptions
from Andhra Pradesh

Volume 3 (Part I and II)
Miscellaneous Inscriptions
in Tamil
(Will be uploaded soon)

ONLY ON WHAT IS INDIA