Editorials

Extract: Calls for data localisation are not new. It has been a mainstay of Indian policymakers’ demands from foreign technology companies. The Justice Srikrishna Committee in its report accompanying the draft Personal Data Protection Bill released on July 27 notes that eight of the top 10 most accessed websites in …

An unusually bright meteor was seen at 7-15 P.M. yesterday [August 1, in Calcutta]. Its direction as observed from the eastern end of the Curzon Gardens was nearly S.S.W. and it appeared to fall vertically first coming into view at an altitude of about 50 degrees, increasing in brilliancy until …

A clampdown on the sale of oxytocin will have severe public health consequences The Union Health Ministry’s ban on the retail sale and private manufacture of oxytocin, expected to kick off on September 1, is an extremely ill-thought-out one. The drug, a synthetic version of a human hormone, is a …

The RBI’s decision to raise benchmark rates spotlights concerns about inflation The decision by the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee to raise benchmark interest rates again by 25 basis points is a prudent one. This is the second successive rate increase in as many months, a response to …

The polio endgame is proving to be challenging. On June 29, 28 children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were paralysed by the circulating vaccine-derived polio virus Type 2 (cVDPV). The World Health Organisation (WHO) has assessed the overall public health risk at the “national level to be …

On why the Clean Ganga project has a long way to go It is a registered trust that runs the ‘Namami Gange’ mission — India’s most ambitious endeavour to clean the Ganga river. The NMCG has a Rs. 20,000-crore, centrally-funded, non-lapsable corpus and consists of nearly 288 projects. The NMCG’s …

Two recent legislative interventions are short-sighted The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has attracted much attention in recent weeks for two reasons. First, it put out for public consultation the draft Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, which seeks to replace the University Grants Commission. In response, it …

Precious evolutionary living resources, natural infrastructure, are going extinct. While we thoughtlessly build artificial infrastructure, we forget that this kills natural infrastructure which took evolution aeons to create and cannot be engineered. We are missing the essential point that this is our lifeline on the planet. Forests, rivers, mountains, aquifers …

The differences in the size and share of population across States in India in 2011 as against that in 1971 have raised widespread apprehension regarding the disadvantage of States that have performed better in population stabilisation efforts while working out their share of funds. Such apprehension sounds premature because the …

South Asia has seen many crises over citizenship. The Supreme Court must ensure there isn’t another one in Assam The ongoing crisis in Assam over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is largely the creation of the Supreme Court. The final draft list of citizens, published on July 30, leaves …

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday that any reservation extended in a hurry to the Maratha community will not stand up in court, while the BJP ally Shiv Sena stirred the quota pot further by asking the State government to extend reservation to Dhangars and Kolis as well. …

The European Association’s preliminary statement on reform proposals declines to pass summary judgment till the fundamental question of electorates is settled. The Association is not hostile to the principles of compartmental transfer of responsibility but considers that the Indian ministers are judgeable by the attitude towards the reserved rather than …

South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s four-day state visit to India early last month came at a time when Mr. Moon’s administration is seeking to upgrade India-South Korea relations. It was evident when Mr. Moon launched a foreign initiative called New Southern Policy last year that he had decided to step …

Talks between representatives of Syria’s Kurdish rebels and President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus bring a ray of hope to hundreds of thousands living in the country’s north and east. After the talks last week, leaders of the Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, …

The recent controversy about transparency in the working of the cadaver transplant programme in Tamil Nadu has provided an opportunity to revisit the vexed question of medical rationing in India. It is a hard reality that not all medical interventions are available to every citizen who may need it. The …

August 24 will mark the first anniversary of the unanimous affirmation of the right to privacy by a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court. The court imposed upon the government a clear obligation to make a law safeguarding a person’s informational privacy, commonly referred to as data protection. The right …