'Have you seen foreign cigarette packets? They only have words warning us about the use of tobacco. While ours have pictures already covering 40 per cent area. I am just saying wait for our study before increasing it.' 'I repeat that I am aware that gutka and tobacco are harmful. Awareness is what we need. We are creating awareness. We are doing it on radio and television.' BJP MP Dilip Gandhi, who says there is no study in India that links tobacco use with cancer and has stayed the increase in size of pictorial warnings on cigarette packets, speaks to A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com

Indian Council of Historical Research Member-Secretary Gopinath Ravindran was heckled last week after he sought to differ from views expressed by David Frawley, an American who stressed on extensive Vedic studies in India at a lecture series in New Delhi.

Cops are struggling to determine the motive, as they rule out sexual assault or a hate crime.

'Constitutional values will remain vibrant and strong as long as the checks and balances on Executive Power are not weakened,' says Constitution expert Anil B Divan.

Over four days all of Tamil Nadu is caught up in celebrating Pongal, the state's harvest festival. From a bonfire to worshipping cattle, it is a throwback to a time when society was agrarian, says A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com.

'The biggest loser is Raj Thackeray's MNS. The MNS may inspire fear, but fear doesn't fetch votes.'

In Dharavi, Koliwada, Antop Hill, Chembur, Nahur, Ramabhai Colony, the enthusiasm for voting was most in the poorer areas. These are the people who vote in every election and they do it so happily.

The Lankans had to pay Indian human smugglers Rs 50,000 per head for the arduous and risky journey to Australia.

Jonathan Bond, a Swiss national, was detained by the Kerala police for attending a memorial function in Thrissur organised for Sinoj, a suspected Maoist who was killed while making bombs in Andhra Pradesh. The police allege that Bond spoke during the memorial function held in a private hall in Thriprayar, Thrissur on July 28.

A nexus between the panchayat president and the block development officer has led to the failure of Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme in many villages, says A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com

Although Lesima JeroseMonisha is relieved that her worst days are over after she alongwith her 45 colleagues returned to India from warn-torn Iraq, she has no idea whether she'll ever get her four-and-half-months' salary that the Iraqi government owes her. Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar reports.

A 23-year-old inmate who escaped from the Akshaya Trust home, founded by CNN hero Narayanan Krishnan, alleges that she was raped. This has cast a shadow over the non-profit organization, that houses mentally ill inmates in Madurai. A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com investigates the controversy.

A Ganesh Nadar meets the family of Lesima Jerose Monisha, one of the Indian nurses stranded in Iraq's Tikrit, in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu. "The nurses are well-fed but they haven't received a single rupee as salary in four months, hope India will make the Iraqi government pay them," says Edwija, her mother.

Anti-nuclear activist S P Udayakumar, who has been called a threat to the economic security of India by the Intelligence Bureau, speaks to A Ganesh Nadar.

It's been a decade of ordeals for the residents of the plush Mayfield Gardens in Gurgaon who are living in their crore plus apartments without basic amenities of water, power and sewage. A Ganesh Nadar reports.

A Ganesh Nadar meets the stunned father of Alexis Prem Kumar, the Indian Jesuit priest, who was abducted by armed gunmen in the Herat province of Afghanistan.

A Ganesh Nadar's tales from the campaign trail.

The Congress headquarters is deserted and has a forlorn look. The lawns had been taken over by the television channels. Each had his own air conditioned tent.