-The Economist An absence of optimism plays a large role in keeping people trapped in poverty THE idea that an infusion of hope can make a big difference to the lives of wretchedly poor people sounds like something dreamed up by a well-meaning activist or a tub-thumping politician. Yet this was the central thrust of a lecture at Harvard UniverSITy on May 3rd by Esther Duflo, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute...

There is a complicated relationship between abortion as such and the selective abortion of female foetuses. This dilemma is one with which the women’s movement in India has been grappling since the late 1980s. In my discussion of this dilemma, I would like to move away completely from Satyamev Jayate, the television programme, (on which a discussion has been initiated by Shohini Ghosh on kafila.org). In any case, there the...

As more and more people connect to the web, governments across the world are looking to regulate and control the virtual world. In India too there is a growing debate on whether the web, especially social networking SITes, should be regulated or not. In an exclusive article for The Times of India, Vint Cerf, considered one of the fathers of the internet along with Bob Kahn, says the beauty of...

-The Indian Express Hurt over Ambedkar cartoon is understandable. But Babasaheb wouldn’t approve of the response Parliament was disrupted by the newly-noticed presence of an old Shankar cartoon in an NCERT political science textbook, that purportedly insulted B.R. Ambedkar. Ram Vilas Paswan demanded that those who permitted the cartoon’s publication be hauled up under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, Mayawati threatened to stall Parliament until action was taken. HRD minister Kapil Sibal...

-The Times of India The Ambedkar-Nehru cartoon controversy has drawn contrasting views from political analysts and social scientists. Dalit intellectuals feel the cartoon is demeaning to Dr Ambedkar. Others believe the controversy is needless, with one commentator saying it smacks of "psephocracy", a system where electoral politics and priorities drive decision-making. Says social scientist Ashis Nandy, "The controversy indicates that though the process of democratization has taken place, democratic values have not...