-The Hindu   Ideological labels are likely to mislead by channelling the debate into issues of capitalism and socialism and detract from the real problem George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Having forgotten the license-permit-quota-raj that enveloped us from 1950 to 1980 and its ‘crony socialism,' many intellectuals, mediapersons and politicians have now discovered ‘crony capitalism.' The license raj consisted of stifling controls imposed on...

-Frontline     Significant part of economic migration is still the result of desperation rather than hard-headed economic calculation. This, in turn, affects the conditions under which workers migrate and their lives and work as well.   PERHAPS the most poignant moment in the film Peepli Live-even though the movie is really more about the media than about the socio-economic realities of India-is at the very end, when the hapless protagonist, now a former farmer...

-The Indian Express We have achieved close to universal enrolment. Now the focus should turn to the quality of education. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 states that every child in India has a right to a full-time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school that satisfies certain essential norms and standards. Even a cursory reading of the law indicates that it...

-The New Indian Express     Bangalore: As the battle for the Lok Sabha elections intensifies, the fight against the UPA government's pet Aadhaar project found support on Sunday as a group of academicians and technocrats spoke against the unique identification project in the city. The head of the project - Nandan Nilekani - is a technocrat himself and also the Congress candidate from Bangalore South constituency. In a discussion on the project, organised...

-Down to Earth   100,000 young children and teenage girls are victims of 'bonded labour' in Tamil Nadu; dalit girls worse off An international organisation working for welfare of workers has drawn attention to the hazardous and exploitative working conditions of young girls working for the garment sector in Tamil Nadu. An estimated 100,000 children and teenage girls are working in extremely oppressive conditions in the spinning mills and garment factories in Tamil Nadu,...