-The Economic Times At the peak of Anna Hazare fever last year, anybody disagreeing with his message or prescription was branded pro-corruption. Over the last few weeks, anybody expressing disappointment at the Supreme Court upholding the Right to Education (RTE) Act is being branded anti-poor or elitist. This is unfair and unnecessary: dissent is not treason. The supporters of Anna and RTE have similar traits: impatient, intellectually certain and more interested in...

MGNREGA can only succeed if politics is taken seriously in the design of accountability mechanisms Does political competition enhance a poor person’s access to anti-poverty initiatives such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA)? Just as some economists believe that competition is an effective way to improve management and productivity, in politics too, some hold that political competition is better than single-party monopoly, because it forces political parties...

Women in India face discrimination even when it comes to their heart health.  Three separate studies - one of them from India and the other two from China and West Asia - presented at the World Congress of Cardiology in Dubai on Friday said that women don't receive the same treatment as men for heart disease across the world.  They said that women with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) receive inferior or less...

-The Hindu Even as political cartoons have come under attack from some unamused politicians — triggering debates on the purpose and Importance of cartoons and freedom of speech — the annual award list for the cartooning contest held in the memory of political cartoonist Maya Kamath was announced. Winners all A Pakistani cartoonist, an acclaimed caricaturist from Bangalore and a Delhi artist finished at the top of the contest, which drew a total...

There is evidence to show that growth is slowly becoming inclusive. But for the quality of life to improve, incomes must be complemented by infrastructure. For close to at least five years now inclusive growth has had a central place in the official discourse on the economy. The UPA II has itself worn its self-proclaimed success in delivering an inclusive growth as a badge of its effectiveness, not to mention its...