Ambedkar is prophet to a people he created soul and politics for The recent controversy over the cartoon of Babasaheb Ambedkar sitting on a snail and Pandit Nehru whipping it from behind, indicating that Ambedkar had made the process of making the Constitution slow, whereas Nehru was for hastening it, created a massive ruckus in Parliament, cutting across all political parties. The cartoon, drawn by P. Shankar Pillai in 1949,...

German drugmaker Bayer AG has demanded the withdrawal of the country's first compulsory licence given to Natco Pharma, arguing that a three-fourth reduction in the price of the anti-cancer drug by another Indian firm has made the permit redundant and its patent itself is vulnerable to being revoked. In March, India allowed Natco Pharma to legally make and sell a low-cost version of cancer drug Nexavar at 3% of the original...

-The Times of India Spiralling prices of vegetables, oils and fats, milk and milk products pushed consumer price inflation to double digits in April in yet another hurdle to the Reserve Bank of India's efforts to ease interest rates. The double digit retail inflation rate also poses fresh challenges for the UPA government which has been on the back foot for its handling of the economy. Data released by the Central Statistics Office...

The row over a cartoon featuring Dalit leader Ambedkar shows a lack of critical thinking in the Indian polity. The cartoon by Shankar Pillai that caused such pandemonium in the Indian Parliament on 11 May 2012 when various Dalit and non-Dalit members demanded its omission from a Class IX textbook was originally published in 1949. It depicts Dalit leader Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar with a whip riding a snail entitled ‘Constitution’...

Cabinet clears change in divorce law: Women to get part of husband’s property In a move that could be a setback to land acquisition for commercial use, a parliamentary committee unanimously recommended that the government should not acquire land for industrial, commercial or for-profit enterprises or private companies. Instead, the panel, which has proposed legislation favouring landowners, recommends that private companies and public-private partnerships would have to buy land in the open...