Editorials

The ‘Bombay’ is one of a fleet of small steamers built and building to the order of the Government of India for service of Indian coasts. Six of these vessels are being constructed in dockyards. They are of composite construction and are built of materials produced almost exclusively in India …

A law to safeguard rights and prevent discrimination The Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Prevention and Control) Act of 2017 safeguards the human rights of people living with HIV and AIDS. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued a notification to bring the Act into force …

The right-minded lawyers of Rewari and Kosli should defy the resolutions of their Bar Associations The Rewari and Kosli Bar Associations in Haryana have passed resolutions that none of their members will defend the accused in the recent case of gang-rape of a teenage girl from Rewari district. This resolution …

The South Korean President’s visit to the North has strengthened the peace process The joint visit of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un to Mount Paektu, the mythical birthplace of the Korean nation, on the last day of their landmark three-day summit is a forceful show …

The stage is set for determining the scope of Article 32 in the activists case The Supreme Court’s intervention following the arrest of five prominent activists by the Pune police last month has been truly extraordinary and raises the bar for protection of personal liberty. The court has granted them …

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s ‘moderate’ outreach is aimed at Hindu centrists The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will never sever its ideological ties with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). But ever since the Narendra Modi government assumed office in 2014, the party has been rapidly metamorphosing into an entity no longer …

It is introducing new ideas and bringing about a greater level of accountability in the system The NITI Aayog was formed to bring fresh ideas to the government. Its first mandate is to act as a think tank. It can be visualised as a funnel through which new and innovative …

Citing literary sources, turning to parables, prose, plays, poetry is the wherewithal of political discourse Policemen and policewomen are not mindless digits in khaki. They have all been to school. Many of them are MAs, some PhDs. And they have families, friends just like anyone else who has not been …

At the [Calcutta] High Court to-day [September 19] Justices Fletcher and Walmsley disposed of a reference made by the Sessions Judge of the Assam Valley Districts in a case in which Bhalok Neog, a constable and three others were charged with conspiring to extort money. It was alleged that on …

The Judicial Commissioners delivered judgment yesterday [September 18] in what is known as the Lucknow political conspiracy murder appeal. The judgment is an extremely lengthy one in the course of which the learned Judges held that the statement of Shankerlal was true. There was no doubt in their minds that …

On raising money from NRIs to boost currency What are NRI bonds? These are bonds issued by the Reserve Bank of India to non-resident Indians who are interested in investing their money in India. Since these bonds offer higher returns than other similar investments, they can be used as a …

Lack of consensus in the Rajya Sabha isno reason to issue an ordinance on triple talaq The Union Cabinet’s decision to take the ordinance route to enact a diluted version of its law making instant triple talaq a criminal offence is a sign of undue impatience. This is a matter …

The U.S. ratchets up the trade warwith China, but to what end? The rules-based world order for international trade appears to be in for a rougher ride yet after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump announced this week that it would be slapping $200-billion worth of Chinese exports with …

As the job market is tight for those with PhDs in science,it is important that they develop other skill sets The number of PhD graduates has proliferated over the decades — while there were only a dozen doctorates till 1920 in India (the first was awarded in 1904), there were …

Kerala has a unique opportunity to put in place climate-resilient water management The recent floods in Kerala saw heroic rescues from raging rivers swollen by unprecedented rains — and the opening of shutters of major dams. There were allegations of ‘human blunders’ while the government said it could have done …

A recap of the Saibaba case shows just how urgently the UAPA needs to be read down In the 1950s, the U.S. was gripped by an anti-communist hysteria that is now known as “McCarthyism”, after Senator Joseph McCarthy, its chief propagandist. McCarthyism was characterised by blacklists and harassment, investigations and …

The debate on data localisation must not be reduced to a good-bad binary For long, Internet activists considered the Internet as being beyond law, politics and governments. J.P. Barlow made the famous Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace in 1996. It was fine when this phenomenon was just shaping up and …

In a letter to the ‘Times’ Sir A.H. Fraser says: He and other members of theIndo-British Association  do not agree wholly with the unfavourable views on the reform scheme expressed by some speakers at a recent meeting of the Association. He welcomes the general principles and tendencies of the Report …

At a solemn conclave convened on Friday [September 13] of the Mahamandal Council and other prominent orthodox leaders of Benares including pundit authorities presided over by the Maharajah Darbhanga, the general President of the Mahamandal, it was decided, first, to inform the supreme Government that the proposed Bill of Mr. …

How an agitation against price rise cost the protesters Journalists have the best seats in the political theatre. This also means that we have to simply hear whatever is being said, whether spectacularly boring or even vitriolic. But there are good days when, for instance, an ironical drama unfolds in …