The border trade point between India and China reopens soon, and the bonhomie at this border between troops on either side, currently witnessed twice a week when mail gets exchanged, will get tested when the traffic increases.

BY Nitin A. Gokhale 2 October 2003

Troops to Iraq may have been in headlines, but other changes are afoot - Assam Rifles is poised to take over all CI operations in the northeastern states to relieve the Army and other forces for deployment elsewhere.

BY Nitin A. Gokhale 16 September 2003

Competition, rising costs, stagnant productivity, falling domestic consumption ...and now labour trouble. The companies say they can't even pay the statutory bonus, leave alone the 20% the workers expect.

BY Nitin A. Gokhale 4 September 2003

The police have been 'force-feeding' a young Manipur girl in custody since November 2000 who refuses to eat voluntarily, demanding withdrawal of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, while recent charges of 'custodial-killing' hog the headlines in

BY Nitin A. Gokhale 24 July 2003

New Delhi will have to shed its reluctance in displeasing its apparently 'friendly' eastern neighbours and talk tough with them, if it wants to prevent another Kashmir-like situation in India's east and the northeast.

BY Nitin A. Gokhale 10 July 2003

If you thought the Northeast is full of primitive tribals in their traditional dresses, you need a reality check. When it comes to high fashion (not just in clothes) and high tech gadgetry, it could teach a thing or two to the rest of India.

BY Nitin A. Gokhale 1 July 2003

The 'breaking news' on 24-hour news channels range from a model getting killed in a freak accident when she is hit by a glass pane falling from the 24th (or is it 48th?) floor of a luxury hotel to the first monsoon showers and the water-logging in th

BY Nitin A. Gokhale 19 June 2003

The Assam tea industry is worried, desperately worried. If in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was under pressure from rising militancy in the state, it is now faced with trouble on the labour front.

BY Nitin A. Gokhale 10 June 2003

In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview in Guwahati, the Assam Chief Minister gives his reasons for opposing the repeal of IM(DT) Act, while listing his government's successes in the past two years. Excerpts from the interview.

BY Nitin A. Gokhale 27 May 2003

Why have the seven-sisters suffered from so much neglect and apathy and been out of the mainstream consciousness of heartland India? Who's to blame? Who's to do something about it?

BY Nitin A. Gokhale 21 May 2003