New Fighter Aircraft Deal – Again?

The ink has barely dried on the acquisition of the French Rafale fighter aircraft, and India has once again entered the international arms market with the intention to procure hundreds of fighter jets, albeit with … Read more

BJP Troll Sena Exposed

Swati Chaturvedi’s book I am a Troll, released a few days back, blows the lid off BJP’s systematic trolling of its opponents. We have always known that the trolling on the internet we see on … Read more

A Year of Apathy Towards Public Health Services

The past year once again provides a clear picture of neglect of public health by the BJP led government and further, a disdain towards policies that promote welfare. The year has seen several outbreaks of infectious … Read more

Four Global Cities to Ban Diesel Vehicles by 2025

With the worst of the winter pollution crisis in Delhi and other northern cities having subsided for the moment, the episodic clamour in the media, the judiciary, government agencies and among the public at large … Read more

The Crisis of the Power Sector Reforms – Part II

The story of the failure of the reforms will not be complete unless we also take into account the failure of the privatisation of distribution. This is what we will examine in the second part … Read more

The Crisis of the Power Sector Reforms – Part I

The crisis of the power sector reforms, carried out over the last three decades, particularly after enacting the 2003 Electricity Act, is now becoming worse. It is estimated that 25,000 MW of capacity today is … Read more

Pollution Chokes Delhi: Perennial Problem, Temporary Fixes

So here we are once again, winter and a blanket of severe pollution in Delhi and the north Indian plains in general. These columns carried an article on the subject last year too, and it … Read more

Leapfrogging to Stage VI Vehicular Emission Norms

The government finally issued the long awaited gazette notification for the sharply compressed timetable for introduction of Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) emission norms for vehicles and other petroleum combustion engines, broadly conforming to the Euro … Read more

Self-driving Vehicles: Coming Soon!

There is some or other news almost every day about autonomous vehicles, also popularly known as “driverless” or self-driving cars. Either some or other company is announcing ever-earlier dates when it plans to introduce autonomous … Read more

Civil Aviation Policy: Subsidize the Rich, Corporates and Foreign Companies

It is by now clear that the settled policy framework of the Modi government is to pump in public investment for infrastructure, services, taxes and other incentives for corporates and higher income groups in the … Read more

Why Hand over a National Asset to Foreign MNCs?

FDI in Pharmaceuticals In the recent slew of measures aimed at liberalisation of norms for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), norms for the pharmaceuticals (medicine) sector have been further liberalized. Existing norms allowed for 100% FDI … Read more

100% FDI in Defence: How Wrong can you Get?

A Golden Raspberry Award or Razzie has been awarded in Hollywood every year since 1981 to the film declared to be the worst movie of the year just a day before the Oscars. If there … Read more