-The Hindu   India is among the world champions of social underspending. Without enlightened social policies, growth mania is unlikely to deliver more under the new government than it did under the previous one Few people today remember the letter written on August 7, 2013 by Mr. Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In this letter, available on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) website, Mr. Modi criticised...

-The Indian Express Most of the dynamism of the Indian economy comes from its states. They must be given more room to chart their growth trajectories In the euphoria surrounding the election results, it is tempting to avoid facing up to the harsh realities of making development happen. Even for those who characterise the election as "the dawn after the dusk", in the new light of day, India's development challenges remain essentially...

-The Times of India   MUMBAI: The landscape of school education has for long promised a variety of options. Almost half-a-dozen school boards-local, national and international-offer Indian students a choice of academic algorithms for careers ahead. But of them all, CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education), which was largely designed for those who moved home and could not be loyal to a state board, is picking up popularity across the nation. In 1996-97,...

-The Hindu   The brutal rape and lynching of two girls in Badaun should shock the collective conscience of all Indians, regardless of their class, caste, religious or ethnic background. But does it? A spate of legal reforms following the protests over the December 16, 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman rejected some of the main recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee that were central to combatting sexual violence. These...

The ADR was set up in 1999 by a group of professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad. Based on its Public Interest Litigation (PIL), the Supreme Court in 2002, and subsequently in 2003, made it mandatory for all candidates contesting elections to disclose criminal, financial and educational background prior to the polls by filing an affidavit with the Election Commission. Since 2002 ADR has been conducting multiple...