-The Hindu He is 91 and still angry. The veteran cop talks of how the police-neta nexus can be broken Having tackled the underworld in Mumbai and Khalistani terror in Punjab, you’d think retired IPS officer Julio Ribeiro would have seen it all. Yet, the Vikas Dubey ‘encounter’ killing in Uttar Pradesh and the custodial deaths of a father and son in Tamil Nadu so shook the 91-year-old “supercop” that he wrote...

-Economic and Political Weekly Integrated and long-term solutions are needed to mitigate the adverse impacts of floods. With the early onset of the monsoon, heavy rainfall and concomitant flooding have caused widespread destruction and loss of lives, livestock and crops in many parts of the country. Although floods occur annually, this time around, the floods occurring at the time of the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country had slowed...

-The Tribune Is there a case to be made for privatisation to help the government raise funds and reduce its fiscal burden and avoid having to recapitalise them every now and then? It is based on an entirely faulty understanding of why the govt needs to own banks. Banks are instruments through which capital flows into the economy. Bank privatisation is a hot topic again. It kicked off when Finance Minister Nirmala...

The newly released Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India 2016-18 shows that India's maternal mortality ratio (MMRatio) has reduced from 130 maternal deaths per one lakh live births during 2014-16 to 122 during 2015-17, and it further dropped to 113 during 2016-18. According to the Sample Registration System (SRS), the MMRatio refers to the number of women who die as a result of complications of pregnancy or childbearing in a...

-The Hindu The state and the rich and middle classes remain indifferent as millions slip into chronic hunger and intense poverty India’s labouring poor have largely disappeared even from the inner pages of newspapers and from television screens. It is as though, after the country has gradually unlocked and most migrants have returned home, the wrenching distress of mass hunger and sudden unemployment that racked their lives has somehow passed. The reality...