-Tehelka Here are the gaping holes in the argument for FDI in retail. No smooth talk can pave over it TOUTED AS a cure-all for India’s economic ills, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail is at best an anodyne, and at worst, toxic. It is an attempt to lift markets by fabricating sentiment; signalling an economic turnaround without any concrete steps being taken to trim the fiscal deficit or boost manufacturing. All...

-The Hindu From illegal detentions to wrong convictions, India’s terror prosecution is in dire need of attitudinal overhaul Only those condemned to await their own deaths will know what it is to be suddenly blessed with the elixir of life. On November 22, two Kashmiri men found themselves lifted out of the darkness of their death row cells into light, life and liberty after the Delhi High Court set aside their convictions...

-Down to Earth An ecologist has been guarding seeds of more than 750 rare rice varieties for over a decade Lit by a kerosene lamp, the two-room hut just outside a sleepy hamlet in Odisha’s Rayagada district can easily pass off as any other farmer’s house in this tribal region. Step inside it, and one is taken aback by the hundreds of earthen pots labelled with coded stickers stacked in a corner...

-Down to Earth The treated water recharges aquifers It is a common sight that greets those visiting the villages in the semi-arid Mewat district of Haryana—streams of waste water emerging from doorsteps of homes, running through streets, and forming puddles here and there. Village Rawli is one such village. It has no sanitation facilities or sewers. Children play in these puddles while their parents watch them without any sign of concern. They...

-The Indian Express After being taken to the streets, rallies and TV studios, FDI in retail is finally being discussed in Parliament. This may be a debate forced upon the government with the threat of persistent parliamentary obstruction, and submitting executive policy to voting in the House may be an extraordinary step that could be routinised at the system’s peril. But it is illuminating, nonetheless, to see the play of perspectives...