Opinion & Edits

Inside Track: Learnt from a Master

Coomi Kapoor writes: Shah traces the story of Modi’s success as a poll strategist not to the Gujarat chief ministerial or 2014 campaigns, but way back to 1987, when Modi was given charge of the BJP campaign in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation polls.

Time for a re-set 

P Chidambaram wirtes: We cannot depart from the path of an open, liberal and market-based economy. That would be suicidal. Yet, we must take stock and, considering the global and domestic developments, re-set our economic policies. That requires the courage, clarity and speed of 1991

What Arivu’s fight and faith taught me

Everybody desecrates the past. Everybody endangers the future

Who is to blame? And is being divided over everything the only way?

Democratic space is slowly growing in Manipur

Suanmuanlian Tonsing and Sangmuan Hangsing write: In a region that has historically emphasised ethnicity, elections are imagined as a form of ethnic and geopolitical dominance and assertion. This may be changing

April 23, 1982, Forty Years Ago: Tax Relief

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a number of minor tax concessions amounting to Rs 15.73 crore in the Lok Sabha.

Addressing the digital tax challenge

Suranjali Tandon writes: India must calibrate its response to OECD formula, assess compromises it will have to make

Why we should embrace Gandhian modernity

KP Shankaran writes: Since life feeds on life, some form of violence is necessary. But when we are talking about violence, we are talking about avoidable violence. What is required is to put an end to all forms of violence that are not necessary.

In unfolding era of strategic convergence, India and Britain are exploring shared possibilities, deepening engagement

The public bonhomie that marked talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, is in tune with the expansive ambition that marks bilateral engagement and the rapid progress on a range of issues.

A South Korean researcher has gleaned insights from what other people throw away

Kang Dong Wan has found — as so many private eyes searching for clues do — that what people throw away can, with the right interpretation, yield a treasure trove of information.

Communal violence is not new to India. But something is different now

Ashutosh Varshney writes: Processions rarely connected to riots are now being used for creating them. The religious neutrality of the government in several states is rapidly eroding

Measures to ease supply-side constraints will only address immediate stress. Larger issues in distribution segment remain

Power demand is rising as the economic recovery from the lows of the pandemic gathers momentum. Demand is only likely to rise further as the country heads into peak summer season, deepening the existing mismatch.

The Urdu press must do more for liberal values

Shafey Kidwai writes: With their frequent engagements with emotive issues and support for pseudo religiosity, Urdu newspapers strive to live up to the glorious past of being passionate organs for rebellion and dissent, despite their dwindling readership and precarious financial fortunes.

There is a growing intolerance to difference

Shahrukh Alam writes: The old grievance against Muslim ‘appeasement’ is now giving way to the new demand for all to conform.

April 22, 1982, Forty Years Ago: Breaking cease-fire

Israel on Wednesday bombed the outskirts of Beirut and other cities and villages in Lebanon, thus breaking the cease-fire it had entered into with the Palestinian forces in July last year.

To shun parties is not to be ‘joyless’. It is simply to have a different definition of joy

Kevin Berling had asked that his colleagues not throw him a birthday bash. They organised a bash, instead, at which Berling had a panic attack, following which he was censured for “stealing other co-workers’ joy”.

St Stephen’s must not insist on admissions interviews

Valson Thampu writes: The introduction of the Common University Entrance Test has rendered irrelevant the old rationale for interviews

Effective and Efficient: The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code

Shashwat Alok, Aditya Kuvalekar, Rajeev Mantri and Prasanna Tantri write: The IBC is potentially as effective as a disciplining device as much as it is a resolution mechanism.

Government needs to factor in that both production and procurement are likely to be below expectations

Indian wheat is highly competitive in the global market today and there’s scope to ship out, maybe 10 mt in 2022-23 over and above the 7.85 mt last fiscal.

Why we should care about Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover bid

Bhaskar Chakravorti writes: Taking Twitter off the public equity markets, as he wants to, would give him license to do as he pleases with the platform

Camp Hebron visit by Centre’s envoy is a gesture to Naga rebels. Both parties should seize the momentum, clinch a deal

Talks were stalled after the NSCN-IM objected to the stance of the then interlocutor R N Ravi. Ravi had reportedly set October 31, 2019 as the deadline for concluding the framework agreement with or without the NSCN-IM’s consent.

Face the facts on communal violence in India

Balbir Punj writes: Understanding climate of hate requires honest examination of its origins, perpetrators

Freebies are a passport to fiscal disaster

NK Singh writes: They could prove expensive for the economy, life quality and social cohesion in the long run

Here’s how, from Piers Morgan’s playbook: Make outrageous statements, play the martyr

Last March, Morgan walked off his ITV show, Good Morning Britain, after a co-panelist confronted him on his statements about Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey.

April 21, 1982, Forty Years Ago: PM In Saudi Arabia

India and Saudi Arabia underlined the importance of maintaining an atmosphere conducive to further negotiations between Islamabad and New Delhi, to attain the objectives of non-aggression and non-use of force.

Initiatives to resuscitate traditional medicine are welcome. There is need to iron out regulatory flaws

According to WHO data, 65 to 70 per cent of people in India use traditional therapies at some stage in their lives.

Don’t rush into export ‘opportunity’ presented by Russia-Ukraine conflict

Devesh Roy and Neelkanth Mishra write: India’s prospects for sustained wheat exports are limited. The surplus stocks are a fraction of the quantity exported annually by Russia and Ukraine.

With eyes wide open, we’re hurtling into an abyss

Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The new Hinduism is about widespread acceptance of vile prejudice, alignment of state with majoritarian power, contempt for rights, glorification of violence