-The Economic Times The entire political opposition to allowing overseas investment in retail is focused on the assumed plight of traders and small merchants in India. How about consumers, who outnumber sellers by many multiples? And what about farmers, the bulk of India's population? The idea of organised retail is to get quality stuff to buyers at reasonable prices. To do that, retailers employ technology, storage and logistics to cut overhead...

Watching the recent debate on the poverty line has been a depressing experience. As the debate unfolded, we witnessed self-righteous commentators engaged in a game of one-upmanship to prove that no one was more concerned for the poor than they, electronic media failing in its responsibility to inform the public simple facts and the Planning Commission proving itself incapable of communicating in simple terms the rationale behind its proposal either...

Academic and chairman of the review committee on the National Curriculum Framework (2005) Yash Pal has pointed out that it was not a “nice thing” to remove parts of the history portion of the Social Science textbook for Class X in Kerala on the grounds that they were deliberate attempts to denigrate certain communities. In an exclusive interview to The Hindu here on Wednesday, Prof. Yash Pal said it (the learning...

-The Hindu   The film has nothing to do with Mullaperiyar dam, says producer-director Producer-director Sohan Roy on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Tamil Nadu Government's ban on screening of his film Dam 999 in the State. Mr. Roy in his writ petition questioned the subjective satisfaction of the Chief Minister (on whose directions the impugned November 24 order was passed), arrived on by “narrow political objectives.” He said the order had...

-The Hindu   “One is my brother and the other is not is the thinking of a narrow-minded person. For those who are broad-minded, liberals, or noble people, the entire world is one big family.” This translation from the Maha Upanishad is part of the vision statement of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), established in 1952 and held annually in Goa. Unfortunately, the IFFI directorate seemed to have momentarily lost...