The state has achieved near universal enrollment. The challenge now is to guarantee learning for every child. Start by letting teachers concentrate on academic work

The most important structure of the Constitution is parliamentary democracy and Parliament represents the will of the sovereign.

There are certain issues, however, which need be addressed, to make sure that the information commission becomes fully autonomous and thus becomes a constitutional body.

Cabinet minister Smriti Irani has a strong hold over her ministry and hence there is little power delegated to either of Irani’s two deputies. Tharoor was fortunate.

The best name for Sehwag is the Great Deflator. No modern batsman could take the wind out of an opening attack — deflate it, in other words — as adeptly as Sehwag.

Instead, all we have talked about since Mohammad Akhlaq’s barbaric murder are the things that have held India back for decades. Old hatreds, old enmities, cultural intolerance and religious violence.

Since last year, when the BJP won, there has been an explosion of subaltern politics. Various events have taken place across the nation reflecting local concerns of ordinary people.

Before 1947, the phrase “neighbouring country” stood for Sri Lanka and, some distance away, Burma. Pakistan and Bangladesh are latter-day neighbours.

The BJP faces a dilemma: While inaction may exacerbate the discontent of the Hardik Patels of tomorrow, any questioning of the reservation system may alienate low-caste voters.

While India takes stock after Dadri, Pakistan’s minorities continue to languish under the law.

Collegium has been a success because it has safeguarded judicial independence

Amaravati offers Chandrababu Naidu an opportunity to redefine his politics and policies

Scapegoating ‘hoarders’ and ‘speculators’ for the spike in dal prices might have been effective in the 1960s. But today, it is only evidence of a rather sloppy conceptual policy framework.

We have allowed the unholy nexus between the upper castes and the rich to continue for long and keep the backward classes, SCs and STs suppressed.

Centre must take up strategic disinvestment with vigour.

There’s an immediate need for an all-India judicial service

Can modernity and atavism be simultaneously embraced? Which will give in first?

The UPA was all about corruption, the NDA is all about communalism.

The collegium system has been restored. Now, efforts must be made to improve it.

Centre cannot distance itself from the rising intolerance by pointing to the states.

This project will be fraught and dangerous. But the defence of India’s republican ideal requires more than nostalgic appeals to our supposedly tolerant heritage.

Indian healthcare providers need to get serious about infection control.

Cultural homogenisation through centrestaging Sanskrit will rob Indian culture of its plurality.

The real challenge is not teaching women in the air force to fly. It is bringing about a shift in thinking. Women in the forces need to be made equal contributors to strategy, future-planning.

Indian interests in Africa will benefit from timely implementation of projects.