The terrorist attack at Pulwama, killing 40 Indian soldiers, provides Narendra Modi a huge but risky chance to portray himself as the toughest politician in India. Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s victory in the 1999 Kargil war helped him win the next

Billionaires are widely seen as undeserving exploiters. Thomas Piketty, author of the bestseller Capital in the 21st Century, says the global system is rigged in favour of old wealth, so inheritance rather than productive work begets great riches. The 2008

Unemployment in 2017-18 was a 45-year high of 6.1%, says the labour survey of the government’s National Sample Survey Office. This report, long suppressed by the government, has leaked to the media. Unemployment was only 2.2% in 2011-12, meaning it

Oxfam’s annual Global Inequality Report once again bemoans growing inequality, and has again been criticised for methodological flaws. Forget the technicalities and see Oxfam’s India Equality Report, 2018. This says inequality fell sharply in the socialist era between 1950 and

Ten years ago, India was seen as a potential superpower, capable of combating the rise of China. Today China has risen so fast that it challenges the techno-military might of the US. India is too far behind to matter. The

Nothing is more fundamental in the Constitution than equality before the law. This prevents narrow but powerful groups from getting special privileges. True, the Constitution also has other provisions permitting caste-based quotas in government jobs and education. But equality before