Last month, Thomas Piketty released the World Inequality Report, revealing worsening income inequality in virtually every country and region. Most readers groaned: they typically view income equality as an unqualified good. The shortcomings of this view hit me when last […]
Income equality is over-rated, Mr Piketty Read More »
The shut-down of Mumbai and other Maharashtra cities last week was a bizarre re-enactment of a battle between a British Mahar regiment and Peshwa troops 200 years ago. An obscure battle of no strategic importance catalysed Dalit mobs into paralyzing
How the land of a thousand clashes conjures social stability Read More »
India has many crimes but no criminals. That one-liner is only a slight exaggeration of the outcome so far in the 2G case, and other cases against politicians. In 2012, the Supreme Court held in a public interest suit that
Bigger than the 2G scam is the justice sham Read More »
Post-Gujarat, PM Modi will opt for incrementalism and populism in his final year The BJP’s sixth successive victory in the Gujarat election has been called a ‘semifinal’, a prelude to the general election in 2019. What does the victory portend
A Little This & Lots of That Read More »
What are the political prospects of Rahul Gandhi, elected Congress president last week? His electoral track record is dismal. Congress has been thrashed repeatedly in recent years. Among major states, it rules only in Punjab and Karnataka, and could lose
Win or lose, you shouldn’t write off Rahul Gandhi Read More »
The Hadiya verdict negates several freedoms, including to marry a terrorist Inthe ‘love jihad’ case involving the conversion of a Hindu girl to Islam, the Supreme Court should not just rescind the judgement of the Kerala High Court, but slam
The Day Choice Was Killed Read More »
After falling for five successive quarters, GDP growth in July-September was 6.3%, up from 5.7% in the previous quarter. Many cheered this as an economic turnaround. I am amused that people now get excited about just 6.3%. How our standards
Economy: It’s not a thumbs up but a ‘bottoms down’ Read More »
Railway minister Piyush Goyal said last week that the railways would be completely electrified by 2022, phasing out diesel locomotives. Earlier, transport minister Nitin Gadkari decreed that all car production would have to be electric after 2030, heralding the end
Why invest in oil when it’s riding into the sunset? Read More »
India looks more impressive from New York than New Delhi. That explains the credit upgrade to India given by Moody’s, the top global rating firm. India’s rating is up from Baa3, just above “junk status”, to Baa2, and its outlook
Why Moody’s is no longer singing the blues on India Read More »
Russian hacking into the US presidential election has spurred claims that Donald Trump’s victory was tainted, maybe rigged. Twitter identified 36,746 accounts with Russiangenerated content. Google found 43 hours of election content on 1,100 videos of Russian origin. Facebook estimated
Russian ‘help’ to Trump holds important poll lessons for India Read More »
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