The urban middle classes hate her, the rural masses love her. The middle classes hate to admit it, but in elections the rural masses matter more. Most of the bhadralok castigate her for ruining university autonomy, filling institutions with her […]

Upamanyu Chatterjee once wrote a book titled The Mammaries of the Welfare State. If he visited Tamil Nadu today, he would be tempted to write another called The Alcoholic Mammaries of Tamil Nadu’s Welfare State. Tamil Nadu gives away more

Arvind Kejriwal should remember two elementary economic propositions when overhauling his odd-even scheme for cars. One, those who use public benefits (like roads) should pay levies to finance those benefits. Two, financial disincentives are better than physical bans and controls.

Two droughts in a row have caused immense distress in areas like Marathwada. The courts have ordered the Indian Premier League to move its cricket matches out of Maharashtra to conserve water. But this will not improve farm incomes. Far

Public sector banks are losing huge sums and running up gargantuan bad debts. Defaulters like Vijay Mallya, once politically powerful, are fleeing abroad. India’s banking crisis is fundamentally political, not financial. The left, predictably, blames wicked businessmen, saying the banking

A step forward in gender justice is the Supreme Court’s admission of the petition of a Muslim woman, Shayara Bano, pleading that polygamy and oral triple talaq —saying talaq thrice in succession — violate fundamental human rights, and hence are

The liberals who rushed to defend Kanhaiya Kumar should be more outraged by the suspension from the Maharashtra assembly of MLA Waris Pathan, for refusing to say ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ (victory to Mother India) as a test of his

The government is suffering from schizophrenia. Its Make in India campaign aims to convince global and Indian manufacturers that India is a business paradise. But recent measures (on tax, drug controls and cotton seeds) suggest the government is arbitrary, populist