-The Indian Express Madan B Lokur writes: It is time for the establishment to realise that the people of this country mean well, and in any democracy, there are bound to be different points of view. A gradual erosion of one of our most precious fundamental rights — the right to freedom of speech and expression — is adversely impacting the liberty of all those who dare to speak up. Our freedom...

-The Indian Express Arvind Subramanian, Shoumitro Chatterjee write: Our growth model has been export-led and should not be abandoned. Export opportunities in general and in specific sectors could be significant even in a post-COVID world. India’s intellectual and policy community has embraced atmanirbharta. This inward turn — actually return — amounts to abandoning two core principles of the post-1991 consensus: Export-orientation on the macro-economic side, and slow but steady liberalisation on the...

-Livemint.com * Barring some major cities, the fear of hefty traffic fines last year was short-lived, new data on road accidents suggests Just over a year ago, dramatic traffic penalties under the amended Motor Vehicles Act made headlines across the country. The centre claimed the fines would curb road accidents. But latest government data show the reality was mixed and the fear of the law may have fizzled out quite soon. A total...

-The Indian Express “Her family told the court that the cremation was done by the Hathras district administration against their wishes,” said senior advocate Jaideep Narain Mathur, who was appointed amicus curiae in the case. Lucknow: THE FAMILY members of the 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died after being assaulted and allegedly gangraped by four upper-caste men in Hathras, told the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday that the district...

-The Indian Express The gap between the current and year-ago stocks, too, has narrowed down from over 15 mt to 1.5 mt between June 1 and October 1. Covid-19 may have unleashed all-round economic devastation, but has also turned into an opportunity for whittling down the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) massive grain mountain. At 68.49 million tonnes (mt), the total wheat and rice stocks in the Central pool as on October 1...