It is four months since the gravity of the swine flu outbreak that started in Mexico became evident to the international community. India was not spared from the three flu pandemics of the last century. It ought to have been clear from the start of this one that the country must be prepared to face […]

This year, the rains were exceptionally bad in June and the monsoon has been unable to recover from such a big setback. Now with half the rainy season over, the chances are that the monsoon will end in a drought. The country as a whole received little more than half the rain it usually gets […]

The suspense over the eligible human embryonic stem cell lines for federal funding has been finally removed after the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the rules recently. The draft guidelines issued earlier by the NIH, after President Barack Obama signed an executive order overturning the eight-year-old ban on federal funding of stem cell lines, […]

Despite the well laid down contours of fiscal federalism in India, the space available to the States has been shrinking in recent times. The growing centralisation of financial powers might well be an unintended consequence of the changing dynamics in public finance. For instance, a major reform of the indirect taxes, through the value added […]

A written reply by Pakistan’s Interior Minister to a parliamentary question to the effect that the Jamat-ud-Dawa is among the 25 proscribed organisations has not cleared the fog of ambiguity surrounding the legal status of the group. Everyone knows that JuD, which wears the garb of a social welfare and charity organisation, is a front […]

With a $19 billion solar energy plan that sets ambitious targets, India has tried to compensate for its serious, retrogressive lack of initiative in addressing climate change. The goal is to generate 20 gigawatts of power using solar energy by 2020 and ramp it up sharply in the decades to follow. As one of the […]

A key conclusion of a recent review of aid-for-trade is that while trade is essential for economic development, trade policies alone cannot be counted upon to achieve a country’s poverty reduction objectives. The review, jointly done by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), was presented at a […]

It is hard to believe that 35 national monuments, including tombs, temples, and cemeteries, protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have gone missing, as the Union Ministry of Culture has acknowledged. The irony is that the maximum number of missing monuments is from Delhi where the ASI is headquartered. In 2006, 11 of […]

A brisk, stress-free walk is a pleasurable experience, and from a medical standpoint, the first line of defence against diabetes, hypertension, and lifestyle-related diseases. New data suggest that even non-leisure walking confers distinct health benefits. The results of a major cross-sectional study in the United States indicate that commuters are at lower risk for cardiovascular […]

The acrimonious dispute between the Ambani brothers has turned the spotlight on the deficiencies of governance in the natural gas sector. Petroleum Minister Murli Deora’s assertion in Parliament that the government will endeavour to protect its legal rights to regulate the utilisation of gas and its allocation is welcome. However, past actions of the government […]