Yearly Archives: 2019

Impeachment proceedings unveiled

The House Democrats in the United States have unveiled plans to open up the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump with public hearings, after criticism from Republicans that the process has been overly secretive. The White House responded that it still considers the proceedings a “scam,” signalling no let-up in …

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Terror in Kashmir a big problem: MEPs

The delegation of Members of European Parliament (MEPs), on a visit to Srinagar on Wednesday, said “terrorism is a severe problem in Kashmir” and named Pakistan as its source. They felt India’s decision to revoke provisions of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu & Kashmir was an internal …

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Dangerous sweetness

In long and verse sweetness has through the ages been equated with goodness but some hard-hearted research scientists have now found that one of the sweetest substances in existence, the cyclamate, spells danger for the consumer. Cyclamates are hydrocarbon compounds 30 times sweeter than sugar and since they are also …

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Deep traps

The onus on closure of abandoned wells should be on the local body, and not the owner As with several such incidents in the past, the intensive operation in Tamil Nadu to rescue a child who slipped into an abandoned borewell in Manapparai, Tiruchi district, ended in spectacular failure. Hopes …

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Brotherhood unbound

Sena’s brinkmanship in talks with BJP is unlikely to fetch it dividends in Maharashtra The protracted bargaining for power sharing between two pre-poll allies, the BJP and the Shiv Sena, is holding up government formation in Maharashtra, despite their victory in the Assembly election. The irony is starker when compared …

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India’s Afghanistan conundrum

The U.S.’s current policy in Afghanistan puts India in a tough spot and Pakistan in a good placeLess than two months after U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly called off talks with the Taliban, Washington is laying the ground to resume them. That this is happening before Afghanistan has a new …

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Science versus myths

Rajputs appear in history roughly 1,200 years ago in regions now known as Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, the Western Gangetic plains and Bundelkhand. For generations they have skilfully used bards, ballads and epic poetry to turn defeats at the northern frontiers of India into moral victories. Raputs lost to Ghazni about …

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The new gold standard in development economics?

Development economics has changed a lot during the last two decades or so, mostly due to the extensive use of ‘randomised control trials’ (RCT). ‘Randomistas’ are proponents of RCTs to assess long-run economic productivity and living standards in poor countries. Three randomistas, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, were …

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