-The Hindu Those opposing Justice Katju’s suggestion of minimum qualifications for journalists are out of touch with reality Some years ago, the journalism entrance test at a career development institute in Mumbai had this objective-type question: Kofi Annan is (a) a Nigerian footballer (b) lead singer of a Sierra Leone pop group (c) a Sri Lankan delicacy (d) Secretary-General of the United Nations. The 100-odd candidates who appeared for the test were...

-The Indian Express An accountability framework is critical for flagship schemes In his budget speech, the finance minister gave the assurance that all flagship programmes of the government would be adequately funded. The government pours substantial funds into 70 Centrally sponsored schemes. In 2011-12, an amount of Rs 1,88,573 crore was allocated for the implementation of 13 development programmes, such as the MGNREGA, PMGSY, NRHM and JNNURM, under the auspices of nine...

-The Hindu Since 2005-06, taxes and duties for the corporate world and the rich have been written off at the rate of Rs.7 million a minute on average. Duties waived on gold and diamonds in the last 36 months equal the 2G scam amount Forbes has just added an “errata” to Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s budget speech. The Minister had found a mere 42,800 people in the country with a taxable...

-The Hindustan Times Children represent not only India’s future, but are also integral to securing India’s present. Yet, development indicators continue to show slow progress towards securing their welfare and delivering their basic rights. The very survival of over a million newborns in the country every year continues to be at risk. Prospects for girls in particular are getting grimmer, with successive Census figures revealing a declining sex ratio. About 44%...

-The Telegraph Even reformed capitalism cannot give equal opportunity There is a view that the real problem with capitalism is that there is no equality of opportunity under this system. Your entire life gets determined by which class you happen to get born into. If the effect of this ‘happenstance’ could somehow be eliminated, so that everyone enjoyed equality of opportunity, then even though income and wealth inequalities continued to remain...