- Continuous and close scrutiny by legislatures is central to improving governance in India. Increasing the number of working days for state legislatures is the first step to increasing their effectiveness, says Chakshu Roy in the Indian Expresson the abysmal rate of sittings in state assemblies.
- With institutions that teach young children computer coding fighting it out in the courts over the criticism on their method, Mandira Moodie in The Hindu asks an important question: are children being introduced to coding too early in life?
- A continued focus on land and property rights is important – these cross-cutting issues not only impact the growth of India’s economy but play an important role in the lives of all Indians, argue Aparajita Bharti and Bindushree D in the Hindustan Times in the context of the farmers’ protests.
- “It is not the economy that makes one worried for India,” writes Kiran Kumbhar in The India Forum. “It is the flattening of diversity, the undermining of education that gave mobility to so many, and the entire ‘banality of evil’ around us that makes me lose hope.”
- Decades have passed since his death. But MG Ramachandran’s legacy has endured the test of time in Tamil Nadu. In the run-up to the Tamil Nadu elections, his name and legacy still cast their spell on voters and political claimant, says T Ramakrishnan in The Hindu.
- The extraordinary haste with which the farm bills were pushed through both the Houses has created the present crisis, which can only exacerbate the economic woes caused by the pandemic, argues senior lawyer Arvind Data in Indian Express.
- Vogue puts together a fascinating oral history of how the fashion industry in the West responded to the AIDS pandemic.
- Longreads has listed 25 of its best pieces of 2020, from the dangers of befriending celebrities to the piece about ancient waterways in Arizona.
- GQ asked the fathers and father figures of Michael Brown, Terence Crutcher, Daniel Prude, Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake to reflect on the violence that forever altered their families’ lives – and what it means to raise a Black man in America.
- In Politico, Tim Alberta reports on how a state in the United States that was never in doubt became a “national embarrassment” and a symbol of the Republican Party’s fealty to Donald Trump.
Reading
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1
Why have Indian historians failed to combat ‘WhatsApp history’?
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2
How the Sassoons of Bombay became one of China’s wealthiest families
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3
‘We Solve Murders’: Richard Osman’s new murder mystery promises – and delivers – a good time
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4
As outsiders swamp party, BJP cadre in UP struggle to keep the faith
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5
Family history: A writer investigates why her great-grandfather chose to sail to South Africa
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6
In Maharashtra’s crowded field, Opposition could stand out by tapping state’s progressive tradition
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7
‘Iru’: A biography in motion about anthropologist Irawati Karve, who lived life on her own terms
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8
With millions due to Adani Power, Bangladesh struggles with green energy shift
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9
Booker Prize review: Desire, suspicion, and obsession comprise the emotional core of ‘The Safekeep’
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10
Explained: How Supreme Court kicked the can of AMU’s minority status down the road