The Times of India

Governments should govern. When misgovernance is exposed, as in the 2G spectrum scam, remedial action should follow. Yet we are seeing theatre parading as principle. A rowdy opposition has paralyzed the current Lok Sabha session. Opposition parties insist that they […]

When I was checking in for a flight in New Zealand last week, the whole airport stopped work and observed a two-minute silence in remembrance of 29 coal miners who had just lost their lives. The tragedy had dominated television

Journalists covering Bihar’s long assembly election campaign are almost unanimous that Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) will be re-elected. Let me add my voice to the chorus. Nitish very much looks a winner and the opposition—led by the once-formidable Lalu Prasad —looks

Journalists covering Bihar’s long assembly election campaign are almost unanimous that Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) will be re-elected. Let me add my voice to the chorus. Nitish very much looks a winner and the opposition—led by the once-formidable Lalu Prasad —looks

Euphoria over President Obama`s support has led some Indians to believe that India will soon become a permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC). Others say Obama has offered a ticket to the UNSC contingent on India paying a

Will US politics be transformed by the Tea Party movement, which thrashed President Obama`s Democrats in US mid-term Congressional elections just before his India visit? Absolutely not. The radical posturing of Tea Party stalwarts is mostly hypocritical mush. The movement

Most international visits by presidents and prime ministers are business-as-usual affairs. Agreements that have been in the works for some time are signed with a ceremonial flourish, but little of a game-changing or truly strategic nature emerges. Such business-as-usual exercises

It’s actually a boon to moneylenders . For two decades, microfinance institutions (MFIs) have spread fast in Andhra Pradesh, reaching millions of poor women and filling the space once dominated by moneylenders. But last week, the state government issued an

Now that the Commonwealth Games have commenced, glitches and all, we can assess them more soberly than the high-pitched media sound bites of recent weeks. Many critics complain that the Games show India in a terrible light. In fact, they

Last week, this column highlighted major economic improvements for dalits in Uttar Pradesh, based on a research paper by Devesh Kapur and others (Rethinking inequality : Dalits in UP in the market reform era). But the real dalit revolution has