- Kamala Harris is an American who grew up in a milieu where racism was the first battle she had to fight. She is sure to look at the plight of human rights in both India and Pakistan under mounting religious discrimination, writes Khaled Ahmed in Indian Express.
- How should India tackle the persisting scourge of malnutrition? Amartya Paul and Upasak Das argue in The Hindu that an immediate universalisation of the Public Distribution System, distribution of quality food items and community kitchens areamong the solutions.
- Analysing several of the bail orders issued by courts in the Delhi February riots cases, Manu Sebastian of Livelaw finds disturbing trends in the manner in which the Delhi police has functioned. In many cases, police officers themselves become witnesses, something that has not inspired the confidence of the courts.
- With his pragmatism, openness, rigorous work ethic, and absolute commitment to the Congress and Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, the Congress veteran who died last week, emerged as a pillar of the party, writes Barkha Dutt.
- “...it breaks my heart to have to suggest to today’s rising generation that this crisis is different than others we have weathered, that the walls are closing in again,” Andy Mukherjee writes in a widely discussed essay in Bloomberg.
- In this New York Times investigation, Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe show how the consulting firm McKinsey proposed paying pharmacy companies rebates for OxyContin overdoses. The controversy around the drug has been at the centre of an opioid crisis that has cost the lives of thousands of Americans.
- There are some valid concerns over the possible misuse of public funds by promoters if industrial houses were allowed to set up banks, but can’t we have a set of rules to prevent this? Monika Halan weighs in on the Reserve Bank of India’s proposal to allow corporate houses to start banks.
- Although launched from a dominantly Muslim base, the Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen sees itself as a new political force that seeks to speak not just for Muslims but a conglomerate of India’s marginalised sections. Badri Raina in The Wire argues that the AIMIM, not the secular parties, has emerged as the principal challenger of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
- Slowly, the baton of hate has been picked up directly by the BJP from vigilante groups, as evidenced in the move to pass laws against the imagined “love jihad”. The police and judiciary have aided this process. This process is bound to transform India officially into an ethnic democracy, argues Christoffe Jaffrelot in Indian Express.
- We’ve mapped Mars, the Moon, the solar system, even our own galaxy. Which means there is only one thing left to understand in this symbolic way and that is the entirety of the cosmos, writes Shannon Stirone in Longreads.
Reading
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1
‘Inviting Modi for Christmas event ignores plight of persecuted Christians,’ says citizens’ group
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2
Shyam Benegal (1934-2024): The conscience keeper of Indian cinema
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3
‘Dune: Prophecy’ review: Palace intrigue overtakes magic in fantasy series
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4
What a meeting with a woman entrepreneur in Kolkata taught a German diplomat about women in India
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5
Translated fiction: Gyan Chaturvedi’s novel about the free-market economy and excessive consumerism
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6
Centre changes election conduct rules days after HC tells EC to provide poll documents to petitioner
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7
Haruki Murakami and the challenge of translating Japanese’s many words for ‘I’
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8
Why has the number of Hajj pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir fallen sharply?
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9
Interview: East India Company to Big Tech – how corporations think about knowledge
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10
The ugly history of Boer prisoner-of-war camps in India