McClure at Brave New Films

Political blame game over Mumbai attacks begins - 29 Nov 08

2008-12-02T00:58:23Z

As Mumbai takes stock of the devastating events of the last three days, many of those injured are recovering in hospitals across the city.

Al Jazeera's Matt McClure reports.

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Kashmir set to vote as separatists urge boycott - 16 Nov 08

2008-11-20T06:54:29Z

The first phase of voting in elections are taking place in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir region. Polling will run for the next six weeks in this heavily militarised area.

But observers see the vote as a calculated gamble for the Indian government, which they say risks losing credibility if there is a low voter turnout.

Al Jazeera's Matt McClure reports.

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Pedestrians threatened by India's traffic chaos - 26 Oct 08

2008-10-29T07:02:16Z

India has become the most dangerous place in the world to drive, with scores of crashes occuring on its roads every day.

Al Jazeera's Matt McClure is driven round the bend in New Delhi.

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Hard times for India car dealerships - 18 Oct 08

2008-10-19T22:51:41Z

Car dealerships in India have had sluggish sales - down 20 per cent from last year because of the credit crunch. There was hope they would rise now in the lead up to diwali, or traditional buying season for the country's hindu majority. But sales teams are having to work double time to try to meet their targets.

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Credit crunch hits India car dealers - 18 Oct 08

2008-10-21T08:51:28Z

It is a measure of India's love affair with cars that people are still looking to buy even as the economic downturn has made purchasing a car a lot more difficult. Car dealerships in India have had sluggish sales because of the credit crunch.

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Indian Christians accuse police of 'taking sides' - 5 Oct 08

2008-11-01T03:30:26Z

More than 30 people have been killed in recent weeks in clashes between Hindu and Christian groups in India's eastern state of Orissa and with tensions remaining high, there are fears the violence is speading south.

Al Jazeera's Matt McClure reports from Mangalore, where the police are being accused of siding with the Hindus against the church-going community.

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Fractures between India's Hindus and Christians - 04 Oct 08

2008-10-31T21:32:41Z

Indian police have detained four people suspected of raping a Catholic nun during clashes in the east of the country.

The arrests come after months of rising tensions which have seen Hindu attacks on Christian homes and churches.

Thousands of people have been made homeless and more than 30 people have died as a result of the fighting. India's prime minister has called it a "national shame".

Matt Mcclure reports from the port city of Mangalore, where the community is fracturing despite centuries of peaceful coexistence.

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Smoking ban rolled out across India - 1 Oct 08

2008-10-31T21:30:01Z

Up to 900,000 people die each year from smoking-related diseases in India.

It is feared that the yearly toll could rise to one million people by 2010.

Faced with these startling figures, the government is instituting toughter smoking bans.

But will it be enough? Al Jazeera's Matt McClure reports from Delhi.

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Will Nepal's Maoists accept election results? - 09 April 08

2008-10-18T03:29:53Z

They are a 20, 000 strong force who waged war for over a decade.

Nepal's Maoists are now committed, at least on paper to laying down their arms and seeking power instead through the ballot box.

The Maoist guns may be silent for now, but if the result of this vote is not to their liking, many Nepalese fear a bloody end to this experiment with democracy.

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Nepal's electricity woes - 06 April 08

2008-10-15T09:30:09Z

Nepal does have one resource in abundance: water. And its neighbours are looking to exploit that resource to power their economies with hydroelectricty.

Meanwhile Nepal is left suffering an energy crisis and regular blackouts.

But China and India hold sway over Nepal... politically and economically.

And as Matt McClure reports Nepal's new government may end up serving its neighbours' interests ahead of its own.

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India's energy blues - 07 Mar 08

2008-10-14T11:27:02Z

The Bush administration has admitted pressuring India to sign a nuclear power deal before the U-S Presidental election in November.

The U-S has sent a top official to India to discuss the civilian nuclear pact. But atomic energy is proving to be controversial in India.

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Stigma for India's Aids patients - 01 Nov 07

2008-10-21T21:30:48Z

Al Jazeera's correspondent Matt McClure reports on the stigma faced by many HIV/Aids patients in India and what the government is doing to remove the problem.

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India Land Protest - 28-October-07

2008-10-23T03:29:33Z

For almost a month, tens of thousands of poor villagers and farmers have marched across India to demand the return of their land.

They reached the capital Delhi on 28 October, where they'll ask the government to change laws that permitted the seizure of their land in the rush to industrialise the country.

Al Jazeera's Matt McClure spent a day travelling with the marchers.

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India's defence expenditure v social spending debate

2008-12-31T13:31:59Z

Mike Mcclure, Al Jazeera's correspondent, reports from the Indian Air Force's air base in Hindon near Delhi on the debate over increased expenditure on defence hardware amid the poverty in which hundreds of millions of its people live.

For the country's million-man armed forces, there's lots to celebrate these days.

An ageing fleet of Soviet-era equipment -- though it can still thrill the crowds -- is set to be replaced. A $40bn upgrade to the Indian arsenal, equipping it with firepower to match its emerging economic prowess.

New jet fighters, artillery, submarines and tanks -- the Indian military believes they are essential but critics say this massive military expenditure is indefensible in a country where two-thirds of the people still live in poverty.

In the flight path of these war machines, less than a kilometre from the Hindon base, people are still waiting for proper sanitation, wishing their children could get a decent public education, wondering even how they'll survive past next week.

"Our young people need better schools and jobs," says Srichand, a retiree. "old folks like me need a pension and some help buying food so we can get by."

Until now, India's defence spending has been about $25bn a year or about 2.5 per cent of its gross domestic product, much less than its Asian rivals, China and Pakistan.

Still, there's fierce debate about whether that's too much. Praful Bidwai, activist writer, says: "Ihe Indian elite is so insensitive to it's own people, so completely callous that it thinks it is perfectly reasonable to spend billions and billions of dollars upon armaments while millions of people starve."

Commodore (retired) Uday Bhaskar, defence analyst, says: "Look at the United States of America - 640 billion dollars. It's not like the United States does not have serious social issues which need investment, but clearly the decision of the political leadership, supported by the people, is that the country needs this expenditure."

Whether Indians support this rapid rise in arms spending depends a lot on what they already have, what vision they have for their country.

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Kashmir's Lake Dal under threat - 04 Aug 07

2008-10-14T11:15:59Z

Lake Dal was once not only a popular destination for tourists, but also a source of water for the local community.

Matt McClure reports the increasing number of people living on its shores has halved the lake's size in recent years.

And pollution is driving away tourists from the World Heritage Site.

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