Editorials

The first death anniversary of Santoshi Kumar, a Dalit girl from Simdega, Jharkhand, was this week. She died of hunger, at the age of 11, a few weeks after her family’s ration card was cancelled by the State government because they failed to link it to Aadhaar. The Aadhaar judgment …

In 1341, the ancient port town of Muziris on the Malabar coast was destroyed by a Periyar in spate. This August, the prized archaeological remains of this legendary trading post nearly met with the same fate, report S. Anandan and Shyama Rajagopal In its long history, the Periyar river, which …

The Cinchona administration report just issued [in Ootacamund] sets out that the output of quinine rose from 62513 to 55014 pounds in the official year. This is a source of satisfaction as the increased production was accomplished without any addition to the manufacturing plants. Post office pice packets are becoming …

A Commission to examine the relationship between Inamdars and their tenants in Mysore has just been appointed by the Government of His Highness the Maharajah. The rights and responsibilities of this class of landholders in the State are not known with any definiteness, especially in the state of things now …

How has the monsoon fared this year? Even though the monsoon is fairly consistent in the amount of rainfall that India receives between June and September, there is a sharp variation every year that makes it unique. This year, the floods in Kerala and the torrential rains in Himachal Pradesh …

Hindi films that depict writers deepen our understanding of neither the writers nor their writing Nandita Das’s film Manto compelled me to think about the portrayal of writers in Hindi cinema. Good examples are hard to come by. But why? Are writers of no consequence to our Hindi film producers? …

The Aadhaar project has survived a fierce legal challenge. Ever since a nine-judge Bench ruled unanimously last year that privacy is a fundamental right, opinion began to gain ground that the unique identification programme was vulnerable in the face of judicial scrutiny. It was projected by sceptics, detractors and activists …

Understanding the differences in taxation of free services and sale of goods between the pre-GST and GST regimes There may be free lunches, but it is quite clear that such lunches will not be free from tax. Recently, the tax department withdrew its demand notice to banks on free service. …

The draft Personal Data Protection Bill poses a danger to the hard-won right to information On August 24, 2017, the Supreme Court declared the right to privacy a fundamental right, a ruling widely welcomed. But many transparency advocates also felt apprehension, fearing that the right to privacy — meant to …

When I was 16 years old, I started dating a guy I met at the Puente Hills Mall in a Los Angeles suburb. I worked there after school at the accessories counter at Robinsons-May. He worked at a high-end men’s store. He would come in wearing a grey silk suit …

After a sudden and brief moment of clear signal, the ‘India-Pakistan channel’ has gone back to static, with the cancellation of talks between the two Foreign Ministers in New York this week. The Foreign Ministers will, no doubt, spar at the UN General Assembly, with a host of diplomats backing …

Non-IPS officers could be posted in any UT and will be at the direct disposal of Home Ministry The Ministry of Home Affairs has notified new rules amalgamating police forces in six Union Territories. The rules effectively mean that officers, who are not direct IPS recruits, could be posted in …

Quite a number of dacoities are reported to have been committed in the province of Bengal last week. In Murshidabad one case is reported in the village of Kasior Police Station Mirzapur. In this case some 15 men entered the house of a woman named Sarada Bewa, tied her with …

The committee of enquiry delivered its report on Monday evening [September 23] in Aligarh before a record number of trustees. Their decision was that Professor Krall’s resignation be accepted and that Mr. Towls, Principal, and Miss Beck, be asked to reconsider their resignations. The report is silent about other resignations. …

At a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Bombay Municipal Corporation this noon [September 25] consideration was given to the reappearance of the mysterious fever during the past few days in an acute and dangerous form. When the epidemic was raging a couple of months ago although it was …

Minutes after we watched Roma and interacted with its maker Alfonso Cuaron, the guy sitting in front of me at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto turned back and suddenly confessed to have wept copiously through the film. For the next 10 minutes we discussed what makes people cry …

Instead of snipping strands, they swapped DNA letters to correct Marfan Syndrome, an inherited disorder that affects connective tissue. Huang Xingxu, the lead author of the paper, which was published in Molecular Therapy , said it was done on 18 viable human embryos through in-vitro. Two of the embryos, however, …

The process of filing claims and objections by persons left out of the draft National Register of Citizens in Assam began on Tuesday, in an atmosphere fraught with uncertainty about the documentation needed and possible recourse for those who may ultimately not clear the final list. In the draft published …

The Maldives turns the page onpre-election cynicism with a dramatic result The interim results of Sunday’s presidential election in the Maldives have given the joint opposition candidate, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih a resounding victory in the direct contest with the incumbent, Abdulla Yameen. The final results will be published by the …

The five-time world chess champion remembers his highest and lowest moments Viswanathan Anand is among India’s greatest sportspersons of all time. In 2000, he became the first Asian to win the World Chess Championship. He went on to lift the world title four more times. He is also one of …