The tsunami in Japan has rekindled a debate on coastal protection with sections of scientists claiming that bad science has been used to wrongly portray mangroves as bioshields against tsunamis and waves from cyclones. Sections of environmental scientists and oceanographers have said the best defence appears to be mounds of sand and mud, and cautioned that it would be misleading to promote coastal vegetation as barriers against giant waves. In the wake...

Rights group Amnesty International has criticised a tough Indian law which it says has been used to detain up to 20,000 people without trial in Indian-administered Kashmir. Amnesty urged India to scrap the Public Safety Act (PSA) which allows detention for up to two years without charge. The group also criticised the judiciary for its failure to protect human rights of the detainees. Kashmir has been gripped by a violent separatist insurgency since...

India's government has an ambitious plan for eradicating hunger in the country. Unfortunately, it may be going about it the wrong way. The National Food Security Bill that New Delhi intends to implement this year will make food a legal right for every citizen, including the millions of poor and underprivileged. No doubt the motive is right: India has one-fourth of the world's hungry poor, according to United Nations statistics. But merely...

I take it you have heard about the blasphemy law and all the uproar it is causing? No, not the one in Pakistan. India now has its own blasphemy law now. It has a narrower focus and it is not rooted in any kind of religiosity, but at the end of the day, it is the exact same as Pakistan's blasphemy law. The government of India has brought forth legislation that...

This book discusses a new poverty agenda for ASIa and the role of social policies in economic transformation and reducing poverty. The poverty-reduction agenda is well known. So is the debate over poverty. No one disputes the fact that poverty of income (or expenditure, as countries such as India do not collect household data on income) is an imperfect measure of poverty, as there are non-income dimensions, too. Consequently, we...