-The Economist An absence of optimism plays a large role in keeping people trapped in poverty THE idea that an infusion of hope can make a big difference to the lives of wretchedly poor people sounds like something dreamed up by a well-meaning activist or a tub-thumping politician. Yet this was the central thrust of a lecture at Harvard University on May 3rd by Esther Duflo, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute...

-CNN-IBN Cartoons are not a laughing matter for politicians after a 63-year-old cartoon of DR BR Ambedkar led to uproarious scenes in Parliament, forcing the Union Government to apologise. Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee assured Parliament on Monday that no political cartoons would be allowed in School textbooks and all objectionable material would be withdrawn after there was a ruckus over a cartoon of BR Ambedkar in NCERT class XI social science...

While India faces an acute shortage of trained medical manpower, as many as 1,333 doctors migrated to foreign shores over the last one year. During the same period, the previous year - from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011 - 1,157 doctors had migrated in search of employment, and between 2009 and 2010, 1,458 doctors went abroad. This latest revelation by Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday comes just...

-The Economist HOW should one judge the lot of women in India, a country that is in many ways progressive, modern, tolerant and yet by turns repressive and hostile? Women hold the highest political positions (the presidency, speaker of parliament, leader of the ruling party, leader of the opposition in parliament, several chief ministers of large states) and in theory they are protected by a variety laws promoting equality. Though development indicators...

-The Hindu “Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul”, B.R. Ambedkar said in a famous speech to the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949, just before putting the Constitution of India to vote. “But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship”. If only the parliamentarians who vented their anger against a 1949 cartoon last week had bothered...