-Hindustan Times A thumb rule for any public policy in Delhi, given the current levels of pollution, should be that the policy at least has a neutral effect on emissions. This means that if it can’t reduce emissions, it should at least not increase them. New Delhi: Government subsidies are often dubbed as inefficient for an economy. While some subsidies may indeed do more harm than good, to argue that all...

-Hindustan Times The nature-development equilibrium is broken, leading to climate disasters. At least 100 people have died in floods in three states in peninsular India — Kerala, Karnataka, and Maharashtra — in August due to monsoon floods. There are several reasons, as reported in a series of articles in Hindustan Times, for the havoc and deaths, such as changes in land-use patterns, excessive quarrying and unscientific plantations (Kerala), poor management of dams...

-Hindustan Times A study shows glaring gaps in Indian policing — from unfilled quotas of SC/STs to a dip in women officers. The rule of law has two extremes: a failed State and a police State. A failed State loses control over law and order as its monopoly slips over the use of physical force. The latter commands complete control, but ends up abusing State machinery for repression. Both extremes suffer...

-Hindustan Times It threatens individual sovereignty, undermines citizen rights, and is a lost chance to meaningfully grapple with data colonisation Data is a sovereign asset,” said the Union minister of railways and commerce, Piyush Goyal, at the G20 meeting in Japan. Goyal was against using free trade agreements to justify the free flow of data. Instead, he said, government restrictions on data flows would allow India to be able to use “personal,...

-Hindustan Times More than one-third of police personnel would be willing to give up their profession if they were given a chance to join another job with the same salaries and perks, the survey found. A survey conducted across 21 Indian states by non-governmental organisations Common Cause and Lokniti – Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), has found police personnel to be under stress due to workload, poor work-life balance,...