-The Economic Times A parliamentary panel on Tuesday proposed tougher norms for acquiring land for industrial use, as it finalised the new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development, in a report due to be tabled in the House on Thursday, proposed a more stringent definition of 'public purpose' to ensure that the government does not acquire land for private businesses. According to the report, the...

An illustration in a textbook must expand or add to the lesson; Shankar's cartoon of Ambedkar does neither The controversy kicked up over the withdrawal of a textbook for high school over a cartoon after a ruckus in Parliament has been superficially interpreted and uniformly criticised without understanding the sensitivities of the oppressed for whom B.R. Ambedkar is a hero. The anger of Dalits is being interpreted as intolerance while in...

There has been a six-fold increase in the number of antibiotics being popped by Indians. This includes the retail sale of Carbapenems -- powerful class IV antibiotics, typically used as a "last resort" to treat serious infections caused by multi-drug resistant, gram-negative pathogens. Research by the Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, Washington DC, has found that retail sale of carbapenems increased six times -- from 0.21 units per million...

Aamir Khan's 'truths' on sex-selective abortion showcased mothers who fought the practice but he missed the point that reproductive decisions are rarely made by women In a media-saturated age, stars must use their celebrity status to draw attention to things that get ignored. Aamir Khan's Satyamev Jayate — a 360° swing away from the muscle flexing normally associated with Bollywood men — has sealed his image as a socially conscious star....

-The Economist An absence of optimism plays a large role in keeping people trapped in poverty THE idea that an infusion of hope can make a big difference to the lives of wretchedly poor people sounds like something dreamed up by a well-meaning activist or a tub-thumping politician. Yet this was the central thrust of a lecture at Harvard University on May 3rd by Esther Duflo, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute...