-The Hindu Nobel laureate Venkataraman ‘Venki' Ramakrishnan on Monday came down heavily on those opposed to genetic modification of agricultural crops. In an exclusive interview to The Hindu, he said there was definitely a need to be careful while dealing with GM crops with proper regulatory mechanism, but one should not ignore the tremendous potentials on offer such as in terms of developing drought resistant varieties and crops with more nutrients and...

-Governance Now Professor Sanjay Kumar, co-director of Lokniti, a research programme of the New Delhi-based think-tank Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and one of our leading ‘election watchers', maintains that we must not read too much in the higher voting numbers and credits the election commission for preparing more accurate voter rolls. Excerpts from an interview with Trithesh Nandan: * What do you make of the phenomenon of higher turnouts? Everybody...

-The Indian Express Food inflation owes largely to agricultural markets being regulated by outdated laws. The RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan, has a difficult task this week. He has to decide whether to keep interest rates constant or raise them - bearing in mind the possible taper of the US Fed's bond buying programme, a decline in industrial production and a rise in inflation. The sharp increase in consumer price-based inflation, to more...

-The Indian Express The Justice Ganguly case shows up some lacunae. For one, the sexual harassment act will have to be changed to extend to unpaid interns. There is immense pressure from women activists, the media and some political parties for retired Supreme Court justice, A.K. Ganguly, to resign as the chairperson of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission for allegedly harassing a young intern. The courage of the young intern in...

-Outlook   Rejecting the Lokpal Bill under consideration in Rajya Sabha as "weak" and ineffective, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal today said nobody except Congress will be benefited by its passage while Rahul Gandhi will get the credit for it. He also said he was saddened by Anna Hazare's stand that he would break his fast if the Lokpal Bill which is in the Upper House is enacted, warning that the proposed...