-The Indian Express No country has ever achieved prosperity without engaging with science and technology (S&T). The ascent of the West and its global domination owes much to its prowess in S&T. In Asia, Japan and South Korea and more recently China have taken the highway to prosperity by mastering technology and effectively dealing with complexity. Chinese economist Justin Yufi Lin in his book The Quest for Prosperity has argued that...

-The Hindustan Times Daughter of 1993 blasts convict Zaibunnisa Kazi, Shagufta, is set to pull out all stops to try and prevent her mother from going back to jail. In wake of the hue and cry over support for actor Sanjay Dutt from the crème de la crème of the society, Shagufta entered into the fray arguing that if Dutt could be pardoned, so could her mother, as both had been convicted...

-The Hindu   The water markets of Marathwada are booming. In the town of Jalna alone, tanker owners transact between Rs.6 million and Rs.7.5 million in water sales each day Thirst is Marathwada's greatest crop this season. Forget sugarcane. Thirst, human and industrial, eclipses anything else. Those harvesting it reap tens of millions of rupees each day across the region. The van loads of dried-out cane you see on the roads could end...

-The Economic Times Extreme poverty afflicts more than one in five people, according to the World Bank. The institution's new president, Jim Yong Kim, speaks of the need to "bend the arc of history in order to eliminate extreme poverty and achieve shared prosperity". At a time when his bank's resources as well as the budgetary resources of governments are limited, Brazil offers important lessons on how to eliminate extreme poverty and...

-The Indian Express Kolkata: West Bengal's notification for the panchayat elections marks a flash point in an ongoing tussle between the Mamata Banerjee government and the state election commission. The government notification, issued last week independently of the election authorities, has declared polls in two phases, on April 26 and 30. The election commission, headed by Meera Pandey, has been insisting on three phases. On Monday, the commission wrote to the government...