
We are a medieval nation with medieval male conduct, archaic laws, a pretence of democracy touted so pompously by our mandarins, political leaders and cultural czars. Let’s look at penalties that will deter all sexual crimes.
Sanjoy Hazarika writes.

The United States immigration reform bill pleases no one, but may displease too few to perish before it remakes the American dream, writes
Rashmee Roshan Lall.
Performance reporting as a concept, goes beyond mere audit. However, it hardly ever happens at the city level. Smruti Koppikar writes.
The passing away of Dr Asghar Ali Engineer (10 March 1939 - 14 May 2013) is a great loss to me personally and a great loss to the Muslim community. We have lost a great Islamic scholar, a man who wrote without fear or favour and a humane person. India has lost a great son. It is the passing away of a legend.

Delhi University's four-year undergraduate programme is being portrayed as moving in the direction that the UPA government, in tandem with India Inc, wants to push the nation’s higher education.

Beijing is now pushing a frontier accord that, in the name of Himalayan peace and tranquility, would freeze India’s belated, bumbling build-up of border defences and troop levels.
Brahma Chellaney writes.
The suffering of Bangladesh’s ‘slave labourers’ must end. Savar underlines that.

There is an overriding and all-pervasive atmosphere of pessimism today. Even though it carries the risk of violence and chaos, a messy, decentralised and politically divided country could be the right catalyst for innovation.
Amish writes.
As long as Indian society puts an onus on male dominance, we will constantly be at war with ourselves, writes Parvati Sharma.

In its journey from page to screen, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is able to capture the several schisms that define our social and political lives, writes
Mira Nair.
It’s that time of the year when you’re bombarded with headlines like ‘23 Ways To Beat The Heat!’, ‘Sweat: It’s Like Drool, But From Your Armpits!’, and ‘It’s Totally Okay To Sell Your Kids For a Box Of Mangoes!’ In keeping with that theme, I present the only real solution to summer, ie leave. Head to the hills and come back only after the dawn of winter. Ashish Shakya writes.
So, don’t believe the union ministry of civil aviation when it says that its latest move to allow airlines to unbundle services and charge for them separately is in the interest of consumers or that it’s going to bring down fares!
Writing this column spooks me sometimes as you know and it just happened again, the kind of coincidence that I’d love to think of as ‘meant’. Renuka Narayanan writes.

Even a flicker of laughter is henceforth banned on this column.

It seems no one has taken a beating for our bad lifestyle habits quite like Bollywood has. Ranbir Kapoor has to pop open nameless bottles of champagne (in a song in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani) and...