-The Telegraph Severe air pollution due to Diwali firecrackers is but one example of the average Indian's disregard for others and for the law The recent air pollution of severe proportions in cities like Calcutta and New Delhi resulted from a failure to comply with a Supreme Court order that Banned firecrackers during Diwali. The unabated pollution from fireworks cannot be blamed on politicians and the police alone. We as citizens have...

-The Hindu Business Line Realising that DeMo pulverised MSMEs, an anxious Centre wants to hurriedly make amends. But loan disbursals may not help The spat between the government and the RBI is primarily in the realm of macroeconomic issues like the size of the reserves the central Bank should hold and the methods of monitoring loans that could go bad. Yet, the political intensity of the government’s moves cannot be missed. Apart from...

-The Hindu The issue today is whether a dishonest system can be managed honestly Allegations of interference in major institutions have been the big news of late. The ongoing fracas in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has got out of hand, with the two top officials in the chain of command accusing each other of corruption. The recent pronouncements in the Supreme Court do not promise an early resolution. The fight against...

-The Hindu Report concedes that farmers couldn’t buy seeds due to cash crunch. Millions of farmers in India were unable to buy seeds and fertilisers for their winter crops because of demonetisation, according to a report submitted by the Union Agriculture Ministry to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. This official acknowledgement of the impact of demonetisation comes on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at a rally in Jhabua, Madhya...

-The Hindu We won’t allow anyone to cut our trees, say the women of Balarampur village For three generations now, and spanning 40 years, Chaturi Sahu, 70, has been unfailingly sending one male member from her family to patrol the nearby Jhinkargadi forest to ensure that its trees and shrubs are untouched. Year after year, her father-in-law, husBand and son, who are part of the foot soldiers of Balarampur, a nondescript village in...