Imagine that the climate summit conference in Copenhagen this weekend was not a gathering of nations. Imagine a gathering of delegates from the many ages of a single nation. The fault lines would not be India and China versus the global rich, but rather China 1800 versus China 1978 versus China 2100. It would be a negotiation not between different lands but between different historical facts, different levels of survivalism....

Cutting emissions drastically is neither easy nor cheap, so the developed world is looking for scapegoats. As you read this, a deal is possibly being signed at Copenhagen to save the world from climate change. But be very clear. The agreement which the world has waited for is not going to be either an effective deal or a fair deal to reduce emissions in the world. The reason is clear: The...

Referring to China in 1947, Nehru declared, “A new star has risen in the eastern horizon,” and some years later predicted, “If you peer into the future, the obvious fourth country in the world is India.” One of the countries he had in mind has disappeared, and he did not imagine that the emergence of India and China on the global stage would lead to mutual friction. The Chinese are...

We Indians implicitly believe in India’s great past. Recently, that past has been given a statistical underpinning by Angus Maddison. To celebrate the beginning of the 21st century, Maddison wrote a book called The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective. There he says that India was the world’s largest economy in the first millennium AD. It produced one-third of the world’s income in the first century, and 29 per cent in...

The decision to set up a nuclear power station with U.S.-made reactors at Kovvada in Ranasthalam mandal of Srikakulam district has caused serious concern among environmental and social activists. The nuclear power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is confident of completing the land acquisition process for Kovvada and four other coastal-based plants within one and half years. It wants clearances for the plants as fast-track projects. Sources have told The Hindu that...