School texts that teach young minds that politics is a contentious and critical but reasonable activity, that it is not merely a set of demands and commands, and that politicians have to be responsive and accountable are naturally disliked by the political class. This is the tone of all the Political Science textbooks of Standards IX-XI brought out after 2006. The nurturing of a culture of critical public opinion seems...

Institutions the bill proposes to set up are not adequately independent of the government The government is reported to be making efforts to seek a consensus amongst its allies and the opposition parties on the Lokpal Bill that is awaiting approval of the Rajya Sabha. People’s movements and some of the main opposition parties have objected to various provisions of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill, 2011, as passed in the winter...

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s statement in Parliament that the Government plans to shift subsidies from chemical fertilizers to organic manures has finally earned him some admiration from grassroots organisations working with small and marginal farmers in the country’s vast dry-lands. Pawar’s statement, if translated into policy action, may go a long way in improving the condition of some of India’s poorest farmers in the rain-fed areas which account for...

A panel headed by the PM's chief economic advisor C Rangarajan has recommended exporting 2 million tonnes (mt) of wheat at a subsidy of Rs 1,500 crore through government channels and another 1 mt through private traders at a subsidy of Rs 150 crore. Warning that just exports would not be enough to manage the overflowing godowns and could cause political problems, the panel has also recommended distribution of 8 mt...

-The Economic Times The per capita income may have gone up by 14% during the last financial year, but the debt burden on every Indian - in the form of the government's debt - went up by 23%, latest official estimates show. According to finance ministry data, the per capita debt in India was estimated at nearly Rs 33,000 at the end of March 2012, compared to a little over Rs 26,600...