For three decades, India’s self-branding as the world’s fastest-growing free-market democracy worked. But in a matter of months,it has all begun to fall apart, writes Shashi Tharoor

The dispute over land ownership has been one of the country’s most contentious issues.

The Taj Mahal is a wonder of the modern world, but this national and international treasure needs swift and decisive action if it is not to lose its legendary lustre.

Rescuers have used helicopters and boats to evacuate thousands of people stranded on rooftops after unprecedented flooding in the southern Indian state of Kerala.

The death toll from an explosion at a thermal power plant in northern India has climbed to 26, officials said.

At least 16 people were killed and dozens more injured in an explosion on Wednesday at a thermal power plant in northern India, officials said.

Nineteen people have drowned after a boat crowded with construction workers capsized in the Yamuna River in northern India and a search is under way for missing passengers, police said.

Death continues to haunt a government hospital in north India that came under fire earlier this month after dozens of babies died within two days.

Devastating floods triggered by monsoon rains have killed more than 950 people and displaced close to 40 million people across northern India, southern Nepal and northern Bangladesh in recent days.

A truck loaded with sand has collided with a school bus, killing at least 24 young children in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

India has registered nearly an 800% spike in the number of so-called honour killings reported.

At least 40 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated as floods hit vast swathes of central and eastern India.

Police in India say they have arrested a shopkeeper for axing to death a couple from a lower caste for not promptly paying a debt of 15 rupees (20 cent) for groceries.

At least 19 people have died and another six have been blinded after drinking tainted alcohol in northern India over the weekend, police said.

Some of the stranger stories from around the world

Authorities have shut schools, sprinkled water in streets and rushed a water train to a parched state in western India where scorching temperatures have reached up to 51C (124F).

A visionary Irish nurse who has devoted his life to helping starving children in India has been named Cork Person of the Month for July.

Soaring temperatures have gripped parts of southern and northern India in an extreme heatwave which has killed more than 500 people and looks set to continue this week, officials said.

A second powerful earthquake in less than three weeks spread panic in Nepal yesterday, bringing down buildings weakened by the first disaster and killing at least 66 people, including 17 in neighbouring India and one in Tibet.

A powerful earthquake which struck Nepal today has killed at least 876 people across four countries.

An Indian bride walked out of her wedding ceremony after her groom-to-be failed to solve a simple maths problem, police said.

Authorities are investigating how more than 100 bodies, many of them children, ended up floating in an offshoot of the Ganges River in northern India.

Authorities are investigating how more than 100 bodies, many of them children, ended up floating in an offshoot of the Ganges River in northern India.

Two Indian teenagers believed to have been raped and hanged by attackers actually took their own lives because of shame over a relationship with a boy, the country’s top investigative agency said.

ENGLAND: Half of people in Britain do not know the First World War began 100 years ago next month, according to The Daily Star.

A woman was hanged from a tree in India’s state of Uttar Pradesh and another allegedly raped in a police station, the latest in a wave of crime against women in the country’s most populous region.

Thousands of people enraged by power cuts during an extreme heatwave have been rioting across northern India, officials said.

Police have used water cannons to disperse hundreds of women protesting at violence against women in the northern Indian state where two teenagers were gang-raped and found hanging from a tree.

Police have used water cannons to disperse hundreds of women protesting against a rise in violence against women in the Indian state where two teenagers were gang-raped and later found hanging from a tree.

Police say three detained suspects have confessed to the gang rape and slaying of two teenage cousins who were found hanging from a tree in northern India last week.

Police say three detained suspects have confessed to the gang rape and slaying of two teenage cousins who were found hanging from a tree in northern India last week.

Police arrested a third suspect today over the gang rape and killing of two teenage cousins found hanging from a tree in northern India, as a top state official said he was recommending a federal investigation into a case that has triggered national outrage.

Police say they have arrested a fifth suspect and are hunting for two others in the gang rape of two teenage cousins who were later found hanging from a tree this week in northern India.

Facing relentless media attention and growing criticism for a series of rapes, state officials in north India fired two police officers for failing to investigate the disappearance of two teenage cousins, who were gang-raped and later found hanging from a tree.

Two police officers who failed to investigate the disappearance of two teenage girls in India who were gang-raped and later found hanging from a tree have been fired.

Three men have been arrested in northern India for attacking the mother of a rape victim after she refused to withdraw her police complaint.

Two teenage sisters in rural India were raped and killed by attackers who hung their bodies from a mango tree, which became the scene of a silent protest by villagers angry about alleged police inaction in the case.

An express train slammed into a parked freight train in northern India, killing at least 40 people and reducing cars to a heap of torn and twisted metal, officials said.

Violence has flared in Indian-controlled Kashmir as millions of people vote on the penultimate day of national elections.

A leopard sparked panic in a north Indian city when it strayed inside a hospital, a cinema and an apartment block before evading captors, an official said.

Grown Ups 2 Leads Razzies Nominees

A tiger prowling for food has killed seven people in northern India in the past two weeks, forcing thousands of terrified villagers to stay inside while hunters try to kill the animal, authorities said today.

Rescuers using backhoes and shovels searched for survivors yesterday under a massive pile of broken concrete and dust that was left when a residential building under construction collapsed in southern India, killing at least 15 workers.

An Indian teenager was gang-raped in two separate attacks and then died after being set on fire, sparking protests in the eastern city of Calcutta, police said.

An Indian court found a dentist couple guilty of murdering their 14-year-old daughter and a servant five years ago, in a dramatic finale to a case that transfixed the country and tapped unease on both sides of the rich-poor divide.

India’s €35bn treasure dream turns to dust