This small and readable book is a layperson’s introduction to India’s economic catastrophe. Since many people believe in an ongoing economic miracle, such views are often dismissed as doomsday talk. But it is better to be aware of reality than to live in an illusion. The title is apt—Bhaduri offers us an unsettling vision of what awaits us if we continue along the current path. He alerts us to the...

India continues to be one of the most corrupt nations in the world with many of its public institutions given to rampant misdeeds. corruption is India's bane and threatens to derail its rapidly growing economy. The country ranks a dismal 84th in a list of 180 countries, according to Transparency International's 2009 corruption Perceptions Index, a measure of domestic and public sector corruption. The corruption watchdog says that many African,...

There are now one billion hungry people on the globe, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said recently. A statistic that is shameful and shocking at the same time. The global financial crisis too has led to a dramatic rise in hunger across the world. Ban warned that the food crisis is a wake-up call for tomorrow since by 2050 the planet's population will be 9.1 billion people, over two billion more...

SOMETIMES, TO accentuate the intransigence of the present, one must revisit the past. So first, a flashback. The year is 2006. An ordinary November evening in Delhi. A slow, halting voice breaks into your consciousness. “How shall I explain? It is not a punishment, but my bounden duty…” A haunting phrase in a haunting voice, made slow with pain yet magnetic in its moral force. “My bounden duty.” What could...

Debate at Annual Press Freedom Round Table centred on revenue-content divide HYDERABAD: As the print medium faces a steep decline in advertisement revenue in the wake of the economic slowdown, the debate over whether business interests or editorial content should dominate the content in newspapers continues to take centre-stage. The issue — which formed the core of the Annual Press Freedom Round Table on the theme “Free Press: what good is...