Reverse Swing: Modi in the Land of the Free (Market)
Indian-Americans are in a frenzy yet again over yet another visit to the US by Narendra Modi, writes Tunku Varadarajan in The Indian Express.
Instead of scouring the globe in search of support for India’s quixotic bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council, and instead of grandstanding in Silicon Valley, our PM would find much greater reward if he were to deliver the economic reform that we had expected from him.
Read the full opinion piece here.
Encryption Policy: Act First, Think Later
Securing information in the digital world is dependent on constant research, innovation, design and application — matters that are best left to vendors, service providers, businesses and citizens, writes P Chidambaram in The Indian Express.
The zeal with which the policy was announced was matched only by the speed with which it was withdrawn. It lasted all of Monday morning to Tuesday evening. Meanwhile, a scapegoat was found — a poor low-level scientist — and everyone else washed his or her hands of the draft National Encryption Policy.
Read the full opinion piece here.
Petty Cogs in the Wheel?
Last year, I was in Madison Gardens and reported in this newspaper that rock stars would be lucky to get the adulation that Modi got. But this year I agreed with my fellow pundits that there would be disenchantment and not rapture, writes Tavleen Singh in The Indian Express.
Modi promised that India would become the easiest country to do business, but we continue to rank below Bangladesh and Pakistan. And according to the latest rankings, it was easier doing business in India before. Could this be because the Prime Minister has not understood the power of the petty official to disregard the best-laid plans of ministers and policymakers?
Read the full opinion piece here.
Smriti Irani, Have a Good cry. Then Give 240m Kids a Chance
Smriti Irani should begin by asking why 15-year-olds from India who took part in a famous international test came second last — only ahead of Kyrgyzstan, writes Gurcharan Das in The Times of India.
I would hang down my head and weep if I were Irani and presiding over one of the world’s worst education systems. After a good cry, I would ask a second question: Why do desperately poor Indian parents pull their children out of government schools, which are free, and send them to low-fee private schools? A parent must be desperate to spend hard-earned income for what is available free.
Read the full opinion piece here.
A Missing but Not Closed Chapter in the Life of Indira
I think I was barely 20 when I discovered MO Mathai’s Reminiscences of the Nehru Age. Everyone I knew was talking about it. But not for what it contained so much as what it didn’t, writes Karan Thapar in Hindustan Times.
On page 153, which is where chapter 29 should have been, there was, in its place, a note from the publisher: “This chapter on an intensely personal experience of the author’s, written without inhibition in the D H Lawrence style, has been withdrawn by the author at the last moment.”
Read the full column here.
The Economics of Carving out New States
What we have learnt from the reorganisation of 2000 is that the new states did as well, or no worse, than their parent states, writes Sumit Mishra in Mint.
New states in the country are often seen more as the outcome of political compulsion and less as drivers of institutional change. If there are lessons to be learnt from the reorganisation of 2000, it is that the new states, as the preliminary evidence suggests, did as well or no worse than their parent states.
Read the full opinion piece here.
Reclaim Land for Industry From Rivers, Reservoirs
India has a very long coastline, with large mud flats (especially in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu) that can be reclaimed cheaply, writes Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar in The Times of India.
Even backward Gangetic states need new airports and river ports. Airports the world over have been built on land reclaimed from wide rivers. Reagan Airport near Washington DC is built partly on land reclaimed from the Potomac. The London City Airport is built on land reclaimed from the Thames.
Read the full opinion piece here.
Out of my mind: About time
Bhagwat’s sense of timing is terrible coming so close to the Bihar elections. Even so, it is legitimate to raise the question of how long will reservations last, writes Meghnad Desai in The Indian Express.
We now have a caste census. It is time to examine whether the jaatis pinpointed by Mandal and among the Dalits have improved their relative status. Modi tackled the 42-year-old OROP issue. At the very least, he should ask an expert committee to see if a century of reservations has worked.
Read the full opinion piece here.
Serena Williams, Sachin Tendulkar and Handling
Williams is a dominant force in her game, as was Tendulkar. But even the best get bogged down by the weight of their fans’ expectations, writes Dilip D’Souza in Mint.
Much like Tendulkar’s fans began focusing on that 100th hundred, Williams had to endure endless questions about the Grand Slam, especially after Wimbledon, when she had “only” to win the US Open to complete it.
Read the full opinion piece here.