麻豆社

Alan Johnston presesnts insight, wit and analysis from 麻豆社 correspondents around the world. In this edition, Nidhi Dutt examines a culture of freebies in Tamil Nadu and Hugh O'Shaughnessy revisits some old academic haunts in Salamanca.

What can political parties offer voters in Tamil Nadu?

The people of India may have much to be proud of in their political system. It is, famously, the world's biggest democracy. And it does much to unite an extraordinarily diverse society. It enables very different religious, linguistic and other communities to have their say.

But there are certainly aspects of Indian politics that some find less impressive. Among them, as Nidhi Dutt explains, is a particular style of election campaigning that's caught on fast in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Salamanca battles for academic survival

In much of Europe these are hard economic times, and Spain is no exception. But you'd think that a city like beautiful, historic Salamanca - renowned for its ancient university - would be well placed to ride out the storm. Surely it should be able to keep drawing in the tourists and the students on which it thrives.

But as Hugh O'Shaughnessy has been finding out as he revisited the city where he himself once studied, Salamanca too is having to goever further to compete.