-The Telegraph Has rape become an inspiring act? Protest, debate, anger, mutual blame, marches, mob violence are spilling out of streets and screens, yet the rape count continues to rise relentlessly, almost as if the outrage over one incident is inciting the next one. Such a narrative is to an extent encouraged by the way incidents are reported in newspapers and television, but the facts are inescapable, and everybody, including the...

-The Indian Express Why the proposed national minimum wage is the wrong answer to questions of unemployment and poverty The recent national labour conference - a trade union love fest with little real employer participation - demanded a national minimum wage. The trade union demand is a predictable positioning of narrow self-interest as national interest but the government's acceptance of their demand is unfair, delusional and economically stupid. Unfair, because it pampers a...

-The Hindustan Times If there is one defining collage of the ongoing monsoon mayhem in Uttarakhand, it's this: multi-storied concrete houses collapsing like a pack of cards into an angry, wild river and cars and lorries being tossed around in the swirling muddy waters, as if they were plastic toys. As I watched the unfolding drama on TV, I remembered what a green campaigner told me some years ago in Uttarkashi:...

-The Hindu     The travails of an official who tried to trace the route, destination of the ore THE STORY SO FAR A six-month investigation by The Hindu shows that 350 million tonnes of iron ore was transported out of Bellary between 2006 and 2010 costing the exchequer over Rs. 1 lakh crore. The Lokayukta report had pegged the loss at Rs. 12,228 crore. Our investigation showed that 200 million tonnes of ore was...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today observed that even if there was a grain of truth in the charges that Ranbaxy was supplying adulterated drugs, it was a "very, very serious matter" but refrained from issuing any orders till it received "prima facie material". The court said that drug-testing standards in the US were different from those in India, and what was happening in America might not necessarily be happening...