The Times of India

At a time when the US, dominator of the 20th century, has switched from globalisation and free trade to ‘America First’, Narendra Modi emphasised the very opposite at the Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum. “Many countries are becoming […]

I welcome the abolition of the government subsidy for Haj pilgrims. The Constitution says the Indian state is secular, and forbids discrimination on religious grounds. So, the state should keep its distance from all religious groups, and not subsidise any.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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