Editorials

The India-U.S. “2+2” dialogue will see External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman meet U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis on September 6 in Delhi. The purpose is to get four key policymakers on the same page. This stems from the idea …

The Allahabad High Court on Monday dismissed a plea from private power producers seeking relief from an RBI diktat to banks to take cognisance of a stressed loan if repayments were missed even by a day. The RBI decision, of February 12, requires banks to complete insolvency resolution proceedings within …

If the arrest of five prominent activists by the Pune police in a coordinated operation across four States has resulted in such indignation, it is because of the widespread suspicion that this is part of an orchestrated crackdown on political dissent. The intervention of high courts and later the Supreme …

China’s leaders have exuded confidence in countering a political storm which apparently targeted President Xi Jinping, after his counterpart from the U.S., Donald Trump, unleashed a full-blown trade war against Beijing. In private conversations, and in a section of the non-state media, many said that instead of a tit-for-tat tariff …

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit in Kathmandu this week, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend, will be another milestone for India after the BRICS-BIMSTEC Outreach Summit hosted by it in 2016, as the grouping has gradually emerged as a …

The “redevelopment” projects of Delhi which have been in the news are caught up in legal tangles. In these, it is the ones related to their environmental approvals that stand out. This article outlines three ways in which these projects have used the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process to subvert …

The material loss due to the Kerala floods has been estimated at Rs. 26,000 crore, but beyond this there has been an immense loss of natural, human, and social capital for which no estimates are available. There is no doubt that the short-sighted attempts in building man-made capital (buildings in …

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the modern democratic state, armed with technologies of surveillance and control, possesses the kind of power that has never ever been exercised by any other state in history. In a democracy, the individual transits from subject to citizen. Yet there is no one …

Mr. Syed Hasan Imam, president-elect of the special session of the Indian National Congress, arrived here [Bombay] this afternoon [August 26] and was given an enthusiastic reception at the station. Alighting from the train Mr. Imam was received by the members of the Reception Committee headed by the Hon’ble Mr. …

It is flawed decision-making triggered by “social proof”-driven thinking that causes toxic bubbles in the stock market, points out Dobelli, noting that this tendency “exists in fashion, management techniques, hobbies, religion and diets. It can paralyse whole cultures, such as when sects commit collective suicide.” But “social proof”, or a …

The tragedy in Kerala has highlighted the dangers of excess water accumulation in dams. More than 20 dams released water that cascaded down the hills, leaving behind a trail of destruction. The opening of the gates of the Idukki dam, for instance, caused the Periyar river to swell rapidly and …

If there was any real benefit in having a Legislative Council, all States in the country should, and arguably would, have a second chamber. The fact that there are only seven such Councils suggests the lack of any real advantage, apart from the absence of a broad political consensus on …

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech last week at the conference for central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming was a strong defence of the current gradual approach to raising interest rates. With the American economy growing at a strong pace, inflation being close to the Fed’s 2% target and …

It was heartening to read all the glowing tributes to veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar and his relentless fight for a free press. The irony is that some of those who do not value the importance of a free press are celebrating his resistance to the Emergency. In the mid-1970s, the …

The new data on GDP have raised a political storm, with the back series for GDP growth since 1993-94 becoming available. Its importance lies in the fact that in 2015, a new series was announced which showed India’s GDP growing faster than the earlier series had shown. This was politically …

In 2011, a celebrated New York-based art dealer, Subhash Kapoor, was detained in Germany for art theft, particularly of idols from temples in Suthamalli and Sripuranthan in Tamil Nadu. He was extradited the next year to India and now awaits trial in Chennai. After his arrest, the American authorities recovered …

Can Article 35A of the Constitution be struck down? If yes, should it be? These questions — raised in a petition filed in the Supreme Court by a Delhi-based non-governmental organisation, “We the Citizens” — have already attracted widespread attention. The case, there’s little doubt, is freighted with political meaning. …

Mr. Syed Hasan Imam, president-elect of the special session of the Indian National Congress, arrived here [Bombay] this afternoon [August 26] and was given an enthusiastic reception at the station. Alighting from the train Mr. Imam was received by the members of the Reception Committee headed by the Hon’ble Mr. …

With a view to remedy social evils in Calcutta, the police are prosecuting a large number of people for trafficking in minor girls. Several people, men and women, had been convicted on charges of kidnapping, wrongful confinement and other charges. At the last sessions of the High Court Mr. Justice …

“You are on your way to a concert. At an intersection, you encounter a group of people, all staring at the sky. Without even thinking about it, you peer upwards too. Why? Social proof,” writes novelist and entrepreneur Rolf Dobelli in The Art of Thinking Clearly. It is flawed decision-making …