Editorials

It is not his travel writing that makes him one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, it is his fiction The joke, considered by some to be factual, runs like this. An Englishman, an admirer of the descriptive writing of the blind Ved Mehta, goes to a literary …

The Delhi High Court order striking down the Begging Act heeds the Constitution’s transformative nature In 1871, the colonial regime passed the notorious Criminal Tribes Act. This law was based upon the racist British belief that in India there were entire groups and communities that were criminal by birth, nature, …

BJP exhibited its superior floor management in the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman’s election It was never going to be easy for the Bharatiya Janata Party to get a candidate of its choice elected as the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. The ruling party and its allies fell short of …

The global community fails Yemen by not pressuring Saudi Arabia to cease the attacks The attack on a bus in a crowded market in southern Yemen that killed at least 45 people, most of them children, is the latest atrocity in the military intervention led by Saudi Arabia that began …

The Indian bull frog, a recent arrival from the mainland, is steadily occupying the islands’ ecosystem and threatening the local economy. Mohit M. Rao reports on the bizarre man-frog conflict brewing in the islands A narrow road bifurcates the hyper-green paddy fields of Webi village in Middle Andaman, in the …

Tax havens, which help rich corporations and businessmen avoid paying high taxes on their income, have been vilified for supporting the illegal accumulation of wealth. Organisations like Oxfam have often characterised tax havens as “anti-poor” since they help the rich avoid paying taxes to governments. Several governments have also come …

Political parties must stop feasting onthe complexities of Assam’s demography In the week since the final draft of the National Register of Citizens in Assam was completed, the political rhetoric has got irresponsibly away from the issue at hand. Those associated with the preparation of the NRC, including its Supreme …

Myanmar’s stability and development depend on how the issues of equality and federalism are addressed August 8 marks the 30th anniversary of the people’s uprising in Myanmar. The ‘8888’ uprising (or the eighth day of August 1988) is one of Myanmar’s most important historic days in the context of the …

A response to some criticism of the Srikrishna Committee report In “A fundamental error” ( The Hindu , August 1), Apar Gupta and Ujwala Uppaluri allege that the Srikrishna Committee has undermined and reinterpreted the legal principles in the right to privacy judgment. Neither the report nor the Bill does …

Why the Supreme Court needs to reconsider the Ismail Faruqui verdict The importance of mosques in Islam has come into focus again. During the hearing of the Babri Masjid case, advocate Rajeev Dhavan asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its judgment in Ismail Faruqui v. Union Of India (1994). The …

There needs to be a road map to rescue private Industrial Training Institutes from their weak state Small shops, basements, tin sheds and godowns. These are not random workplaces but places where private Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) are running in the country. Disturbing facts such as these come from the …

Mr. Morarji Desai, Deputy Prime Minister, made a categorical declaration in the Lok Sabha to-day [August 5, New Delhi] that the Government did not hold the view that nationalisation of banks was necessary, in the present state of affairs. Though some members of the Congress Party demanded nationalisation, Mr. Desai …

The IACHR’s advisory opinion is a moral victory for Julian Assange. But will it impress the U.K. or the U.S.? June 19th was the sixth anniversary of WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange entering the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He was granted asylum in 2012 by then President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa. …

States should reconsider their opposition to amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act India’s law governing motor vehicles and transport is archaic, lacking the provisions necessary to manage fast motorisation. The lacunae in the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, require to be addressed to improve road safety, ensure orderly use of vehicles …

The British PM faces a tough test to win support in Europe for her Chequers plan Desperate times call for desperate measures. British Prime Minister Theresa May last week flew to France to meet French President Emmanuel Macron at his holiday home, to lobby for her Cabinet’s version of Brexit …

How Congo learnt from the 2014 Ebola crisis and is dealing with the situation this year The Ebola virus returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) just days after the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced, on July 24, that the Ebola outbreak had ended there. Congo says it …

The time has come for the developing world to have a greater say While Bretton Woods institutions were to embed the new financial trade order, U.S. Treasury department official, Harry Dexter White, and economist John Maynard Keynes had more than just the regulation of the international monetary system in mind …

Can India manage with a certain amount of disorder to sustain a plural vision of democracy? The current situation in Assam seems like a nightmare, a warning about the internal contradictions of democracy. It is a warning that the 19th century ideas of democracy as electoral-ism and the notion of …

Those who use high speed Internet tend to sleep 25 minutes less than their counterparts without such access. They are also significantly less likely to sleep between the prescribed seven to nine hours.” —Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/healthline-ritesh-kumar/article24606172.ece

Basic nutrition:World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7) is celebrated every year to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world. It commemorates the Innocenti Declaration signed in August 1990 by government policymakers, the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF and other organisations to protect, promote and support breastfeeding. Breastfeeding, …