-Kafila.org The last few months have seen an unusual public engagement around questions of secularism, freedom of speech, sedition and the like, with furious debates everywhere from our campuses, streets and TV studios to the floor of Parliament. The budget session has been enlivened by scenes of high drama, with the leading lights of the Treasury benches bringing colour, sound and fury to their tutorials on patriotism and nationalism. While these high-decibel...

-The Indian Express Central allocations for agriculture are less important than the state budgets. I took the night train to Delhi to participate in budget-day discussions and my co-passenger, who boarded the train in ravaged Punjab, asked me a simple question: “50 farmers are committing suicide everyday; will the budget end farmer suicides?” My answer was — and still is — “No.” The Union budget is just the government’s bookkeeping exercise...

-The Indian Express Delhi’s odd-even trial was brave, but policy needs good research at design stage. The trial period of the odd-even policy demonstrated a commendable willingness from the Delhi government to experiment with a policy option, and decide its future based on the evidence of impact, and acceptability from the residents of Delhi. Good evidence on the impact of any public policy requires a willingness to experiment, quality data, and a...

-The Hindu Business Line India is being too accommodating of MNCs The Centre is needlessly apologetic about our IPR laws. It set up an IPR ‘think tank’ in October 2014, perhaps responding to a view that our IPRs are not strong enough to invite foreign investment. Last January, Prime Minister Modi and President Obama issued a joint statement which “committed to establish an annual high-level Intellectual Property Working Group”. In November, Modi...

-The Hindu A key to understanding the effect of driving restrictions on emission levels would be to analyse what substitutions citizens will make for private vehicle TRIPS during restriction hours It will be an unusual start to the New Year for Delhi. The city will be subject to the much-discussed driving restrictions, according to which between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. most private vehicle operators will only be able to take their...