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Durwood Zaelke & Mario Molina The ironies of climate change are often cruel. In our warming world, for example, the demand for air conditioning (AC) and refrigeration is exploding, especially in developing countries. But more AC units lead to more warming, both from the refrigerant...

India does not have a national security policy. To the extent that it can be understood from the BJP’s manifesto, the policy is “India First” (a line used in 2014) and “Nation First,” used in the manifesto of 2019. But what these words mean is...

Transparency or weeding out corruption is a ‘theme’ with the Modi sarkar, and it has been sort of pursuing this goal despite a pushback from the babus. Last year, the government endorsed lists of “dozens” of officers of the IRS and IT services accused of...

The Goods Services Tax (GST), introduced with much fanfare in July 2017, is unraveling itself. The new tax regime, touted to be the biggest ever tax reform in independent India, has failed to meet the purposes it had promised to serve. Both the Centre, which...

Compassion is not a hobby, or something you do in a good mood, or when you are well fed, or with your friends. It is a mental state, or an orientation towards suffering that includes four things -- recognising that there is suffering, being emotionally...

The Government of India (GoI) has recently announced it will take steps to weed out inefficient and corrupt officials from its ranks. Ministries have been directed to prepare the list of such officials, within the age group of 50-55 years, and recommend action. Obviously the...

The Bhushan saga may seem to be over but the heat generated will keep the judicial pot boiling for some more time. Everyone must be sensing the unease that this ‘harmless’ conclusion has created. The long build-up of weeks, for and against, in what had...

Some years ago, there was a cartoon movie named ‘South Park’. That movie, though it used crude language, had tried to portray how society always preferred to blame someone or something else for inherent faults and ills that it was responsible for itself. In India...

From September 1 we will have Unlock 4.0. I have lost track of what this means and I do not think anybody really understands it. What the Indian government has done is to try and manage the spread of Covid through keeping things shut. If...

Former Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar has been named the new Election Commissioner. He replaces Ashok Lavasa, who is leaving to join the Asian Development Bank as vice-president. While Sunil Arora is the Chief Election Commissioner, the other Election Commissioner is Sushil Chandra. The importance of...