-Pratirodh.com If Year 2012 earned the sobriquet of “Year of Scams’ due to serial expose of “super social cop” Arvind Kejeriwal, and the year-end tragic death of girl in Delhi gang rape case reminded us about the most ugly manifestation of ‘Republic of Patriarchy’ in India, Year 2013 promises to be a game changer for the fortunes of welfare state in India as well as political fortunes of UPA-2.   If Narendra Modi,...

-Economic and Political Weekly The recent debate on the acceptability of foreign direct investment in the retail sector in India has been mostly political. It is necessary to look into the pros and cons of FDI in retail from a purely economic point of view. This article identifi es the safeguards that should be undertaken before allowing giant multinationals to function in the country. Abhirup Sarkar (abhirup@isical.ac.in) is with the Indian Statistical...

-Outlook India must adopt and enforce measures to ensure the dignified treatment and examination of sexual assault survivors and eliminate the use of 'finger tests' in rape cases, a leading rights body said today amid protests against the brutal rape of a 23-year-old Delhi girl. The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the December 16 incident should spur decisive action by the Indian government to combat sexual violence. "It is much harder,...

-The Hindu ‘Governments must protect interest of producer, consumer’ The controversy regarding India’s permission to allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and growing “land grab” in Africa by multinational corporations are being closely watched globally by agriculture experts, researchers and donors. At a workshop here on ‘Supporting Policy Research to Inform Agricultural Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia’ — which a few journalists from both regions were invited to attend —...

-The Indian Express India lost a whopping $123 billion in black money during 2001-2010, making it the eight largest victim of illicit financial outflow, a US-based research and advocacy organisation said in a report. However, India’s black money loss of $123 billion in 10 years is far less than that of China, which according to the report suffered a loss of $2.74 trillion during the same period (2001 to 2010), followed by...