Ratan Tata has initiated an interesting debate on the nature of India’s capitalist class. His characterization of this class as crony capitalists may not be out of place given recent evidence on a politics, media, judiciary and corporate nexus.Crony capitalism is a system in which businesses multiply their wealth not by fair rules of the market, but through their nexus with governments. Classic examples are the distribution of legal permits,...

The state government has made a positive gesture by deciding to recruit doctors to fill up vacancies at government hospitals. But doctors are not willing to reciprocate. The government has decided to fill up 3,613 vacancies by March 2011 but only 1,200 doctors have applied for the posts in government hospitals across the state, said a source. Officials of Bihar Health Services Association (BHSA) — the organisation that represents doctors in...

The Global Hunger Index report paints a gloomy picture of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. WITH the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals just five years away, the 2010 Global Hunger Index report prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) paints a gloomy picture of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Some 29 countries in these regions, it says, have levels of hunger that are alarming or extremely alarming....

“Schools and hostels now being occupied by security forces must be vacated” Supreme Court orders police protection to one of the petitioners With the petitioners in the ongoing PIL case on Salwa Judum asking for the formation of a high-level committee to oversee the rehabilitation of displaced persons in Chhattisgarh and deal with criminal matters arising from the activities of the state-sponsored anti-Naxal movement, the Centre, through the Solicitor-General, on Thursday told...

A new United Nations report shows for the first time how poor health is linked to poverty in cities and calls on policymakers to identify those that need the most help and target measures to improve their well-being. The report, entitled “Hidden Cities: unmasking and overcoming health inequities in urban settings,” was launched today in Kobe, Japan, where leaders from governments, academia, media and non-governmental organizations have been meeting for the...