Democracy is, everywhere, a work in progress. Like many other countries, India has imposed electoral quotas to improve the political empowerment of women and racial-ethnic minorities – that is, it has a political system that requires women to be elected to certain leadership positions. These rules represent a form of affirmative action, but they also resemble a feature of our own Constitution that reserves space in the Senate for two representatives...

Within a few days from today we will be crossing over to the second decade of the 21st century. Those of us born in the 20th century and lived through the first decade of the 21st, have indeed been fortunate to experience the impact of several giant steps of progress in human history. Mankind has indeed achieved much more in this period than it had in all the previous periods...

After dedicating most of 2009 to jump-starting financial markets through stimulus packages, developed countries are now turning their attention to reforming the basic architecture of those markets, especially the incentives for risk-taking. In a major step towards regulating systemic risks, the United Kingdom last week announced a one-off 50 per cent “super-tax” on bankers’ discretionary bonuses exceeding £25,000. The move could raise £550 milli on, which would be used to...

A formal move to consider the removal of a sitting judge is extremely rare. In 1991, impeachment proceedings began against Justice V Ramaswami, but were later dropped due to lack of support in Parliament. More recently, a judge of the Calcutta high court is facing impeachment. Now, 76 Rajya Sabha MPs - all from the opposition ranks - have put their signature to a petition seeking the removal of Karnataka...

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency. Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years...