-The Economist A new form of radical centrist politics is needed to tackle inequality without hurting economic growth BY THE end of the 19th century, the first age of globalisation and a spate of new inventions had transformed the world economy. But the “Gilded Age” was also a famously unequal one, with America’s robber barons and Europe’s “Downton Abbey” classes amassing huge wealth: the concept of “conspicuous consumption” dates back to 1899....

-The Economist Growing inequality is one of the biggest social, economic and political challenges of our time. But it is not inevitable, says Zanny Minton Beddoes IN 1889, AT the height of America’s first Gilded Age, George Vanderbilt II, grandson of the original railway magnate, set out to build a country estate in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. He hired the most prominent architect of the time, toured the chateaux...

-DNA "Frivolous and vexatious” — these were the words that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used while addressing this year’s edition of the annual Right To Information (RTI) convention. His choice of words raises several disturbing questions. The PM conveniently ignored the fact that there is no legal definition of what constitutes “frivolous and vexatious” and there is unlikely to be one in the future. Will one person’s understanding of “frivolous” be...

-The Times of India SRINAGAR: Notwithstanding the improvement in the security situation in the Valley, Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde ruled out the revocation of the contentious Armed Forces Special Powers Act here on Sunday. The Act gives sweeping powers to the Army including to arrest without a warrant anyone who has committed offence or even suspected of having done so, and to enter any premise to make such arrests. Chief...

-The Hindustan Times Claiming that citizens would be deprived of a transparent and accountable system, activists have vehemently protested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s opinion about the ‘frivolous and vexatious” use of the RTI Act and how it can be a problem for public private partnerships (PPP).   The PM’s remarks followed the Supreme Court and the Central Information Commission’s criticism of frivolous RTI applications. “The RTI Act has been used and owned by the...