A street scene from what was then Calcutta, many decades ago.

Oh Calcutta! Memories of bombs, gang warfare on streets, fish head dal and intellectual ferment

The first one, and one I recall as vividly as something that happened just now, goes back to November 1969.

20 Feb 2020 2:31 AM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (Photo: ANI)

Sitharaman Budget: Long in form, short in content

Indirect taxes involve a bigger population cohort considering that the consumer finally pays the GST. Thus, even a matchbox results in tax revenues.

02 Feb 2020 6:36 AM

John F. Kennedy himself wanted to join the Harvard faculty after completing his second term, and hence his family endowed the Institute of Politics and the Presidential Library to be a part of Harvard. (Photo: AP)

Think tanks’ role growing: Is that a good thing?

The United States always had a tradition of academics and policy wonks flitting in and out of government for short periods.

20 Jan 2020 1:50 AM

After Putin: Will Russia see new spring in winter?

Putin’s image has been corroded by overexposure.

02 Jan 2020 1:46 AM

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy

Separation of powers doesn’t mean 3 capitals

The idea seems to be driven by dispensing economic gains (and real estate) to the state’s three main socio-political regions.

27 Dec 2019 4:30 AM

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (Photo: AFP)

India-China talks in Agra: No give nor take

Aksai Chin lies between Jammu and Kashmir, and China’s Xinjiang province, both regions that are also riven by separatist conflicts.

20 Dec 2019 1:29 AM

In 2010 agriculture contributed 17.5 per cent of GDP, while industry contributed 30.2 per cent and services 45.4 per cent. In 2019 that has become 15.6 per cent, 26.5 per cent and 48.5 per cent respectively.

2010-2020: The decade that India has ‘lost’

The most significant cause for the decline of growth is the decline in capital investment.

17 Dec 2019 7:50 AM

Rajaji had sounded the first warning on a ‘planned’ economy

There are no examples of major economies that have grown rapidly with low rates of investment.

10 Dec 2019 12:54 AM

Will Hyd get 5 acres to build a new Charminar?

Contrary to a widely held misconception, the monument has no religious overtones.

04 Dec 2019 2:59 AM

Devendra Fadnavis resigned as the chief minister of Maharashtra on Tuesday. (Photo: ANI)

Democracy wins? The losers take it all

The people of Maharashtra had spoken and under normal circumstances their wishes should have been respected.

27 Nov 2019 1:16 AM

Reset: Regaining India's Economic Legacy by Subramaniam Swamy Rupa, Rs 499

Sharp economics offers glimpse of Swamy we never had

Reset is a well-crafted and articulated study of what ails the India economy.

24 Nov 2019 8:16 AM

The Modi government has begun to pay French vendor Dassault 7.85 billion euros for 36 Rafale fighters, or an average per-fighter cost of 217 million euros.

Rafale dogfight: Exoneration of process, not graft

The comparable costs of the 126 and 36 aircraft deals can only be assessed when all the costs are factored in.

16 Nov 2019 12:13 AM

Five Supreme Court judges — Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi (centre) flanked by Justice Ashok Bhushan (left), Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde (second from left), Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud (second from right), Justice S. Abdul Nazeer (right) — pose for a photograph after delivering the verdict on Ayodhya land case in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

A Solomonic verdict, but not quite closure

Advani is still the popular villain of the liberal set because he set off on his Rath Yatra wanting a Ram Mandir built in Ayodhya.

10 Nov 2019 12:00 AM

The UN has grown much since then, reflecting the changes in the world mostly due to decolonisation, fragmentation of the USSR, and the division of some founder member states like Yugoslavia.

It’s high time to push UN’s democratisation

The UN now has 191 members, and Switzerland was the last to join on September 10, 2002.

06 Nov 2019 1:16 AM

The India-Pakistan enmity is possibly the world’s most intractable and obdurate, with a mutual misreading of history made extremely volatile with the brandishing of nuclear weapons.

Winds of climate change blow across South Asia

According to the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources, Pakistan officially crossed the water scarcity line in 2005.

29 Oct 2019 1:27 AM

The Constitution of India does not recognise the institution of political parties, as is the case with the constitutions of other major democracies of the world.

To reform politics, ensure inner-party democracy

Members of Parliament or the legislatures are representatives of the people.

24 Oct 2019 2:15 AM

Threat to turn off water to Pakistan is unworkable

The three eastern rivers allocated to India by the IWT are the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej.

21 Oct 2019 2:19 AM

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was instituted in 1968 by the Swedish central bank, and laureates are selected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is commonly called the Nobel Prize in Economics, though the Nobel Endowment has nothing to do with it. (Photo: AP)

Eco Nobel: From philosophical to pragmatic

In 1997, Robert Merton and Myron Scholes at MIT were awarded the Nobel “for a new method to determine the value of derivatives”.

16 Oct 2019 1:15 AM

According to the World Health Organisation, there are approximately 120 million smokers in India, and India is the home of 12 per cent of the world’s smokers.

Act swiftly now, or allow India to go up in smoke!

Objectively speaking, this is not a bad situation at all, and is proof that govt policy, whether deliberate or accidental, is still halfway good.

11 Oct 2019 5:12 AM

On finding a democratic alternative to the RSS

The growing rejection of dynastic fate is in evidence all over the new India.

18 Sep 2019 1:52 AM

Mohan Guruswamy