There is an elephant in the room

"Two conflicting narratives, both built around the BSP, dominate the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh."

The statement "This is an election where every party thinks it is forming the government" says it all.
The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : There is an elephant in the room:

Israel unveils sophisticated shelters in Tel Aviv

"Israel has put the finishing touches on a new gathering place that it hopes will never host a crowd — the country's most advanced public underground bomb shelter."

The shelter, four stories underground and with space for 1,600 people, is usually a parking lot. It is also part of Tel Aviv's elaborate civil defence infrastructure. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Israel unveils sophisticated shelters in Tel Aviv: The shelter is part of the city's network of shelters that can give cover to 250,000 people.

Recent talk of conflict with Iran has given the safety measures extra relevance. Officials say the timing is coincidental. Israeli leaders have hinted they may mount a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, even as American military leaders urge Israel to wait for tough economic sanctions to take effect. Should Israel attack, Iran has promised a punishing counter strike.

The growth gamble

The sharp fall in economic growth in the third quarter of the current fiscal, is the sixth time in the last seven quarters that growth has declined and is proof, if any were needed, of the seriousness of the slowdown.

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : The growth gamble: "A reduction in rates will boost sentiment, which is desperately needed now, and encourage companies to resume investment activity. As for the government, the fiscal deficit is spinning out of control and it has to either cut spending or raise additional resources, both of which are tough."

Fatal attraction

"Plagiarism is a curse that afflicts every endeavour where pen is put to paper — journalism, literature and academic research — but when it shows up in the world of science, the consequences can be far more damaging. At stake are not just individual reputations but the robustness of scholarly findings. That is why every effort must be made to stamp out the rot. "

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Fatal attraction:  One of the ironies of our times is that the computer makes both plagiarism and its detection easier than ever.

Four insights that could lift the fortune of retailers in India

A massive part of the Indian population are retailers and they span various sociological bands and scales.

K Radhakrishnan provides 4 essential insights about customers that these retailers need to posses so that their businesses flourish.

Four insights that could lift the fortunes of retailers in India.

NCTC row: How to lose allies and alienate the opposition

The recent embarrassment regarding the formulation of the "National counter terrorism centre" is another chink in the armour for the centre which is already in a weak position.

P Chidambaram's black marks, Manmohan Singh's silence, Strong chief ministers, Dual ruling, lack of cooperation among allies and leaving the opposition out in the cold are some of the factors that has brought this system to such a fragile condition.

NV Subramanyam elaborates...

NCTC row: How to lose allies and alienate the opposition

Congress turning the UP gun on itself

Recently Jaiswal, leader of the union, said congress will demand president's rule if congress does not get a majority in the UP polls.

Neerja Chowdhary explains why is his statement a faux Pas...

"Political implications apart, it was highly objectionable for Jaiswal - he is not just a party leader, like Digvijay Singh, but holds a constitutional office as a minister of the Union - to talk of president’s rule in the midst of elections. After all, polls are held to enable an elected government to be formed, not with a view to impose Central rule, and that too before the election process is over."

Congress turning the UP gun on itself

Centre must not stall state legislations

The editorial calls for the central government to expedite the review/approvals of the various state legislature bills passed, especially by the opposition ruled states. The government-governor disputes in many states (especially Karnataka, Gujarat) has added to this enormous delay in passing the bills. Neither does this put good light on the federal structure of the country, nor does the government send signals to the people of those states about the intent of the center.

The editorial also points to the cases where the center and states have collaborated well (Tamilnadu and Meghalaya with their governor appointments) and calls for such healthy exchanges.

http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/editorials/centre-must-not-stall-state-legislations/368279.html

"The Supreme Court has in fixing three months as the period within which the Centre will have to decide on applications seeking sanction for prosecution of officials has set an example which may have to be followed in this case too."

Callous delay by govt in recognising new IITs

The Editorial calls for the government to expedite the call for giving the necessary parliamentary recognition for the newly created IITs. While there have been numerous descent in the way new IITs were created, and concern for the quality of them, the new IITs are taking shape slowly anyways. In this juncture, not giving them the necessary parliamentary recognition will create doubts on the minds of students who are studying there.

http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/editorials/callous-delay-by-govt-in-recognising-new-iits/368281.html

A festering wound in Pakistan

"The conspiracy of silence over Balochistan is finally breaking but the alienation of the province runs too deep for any easy solutions."

The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : A festering wound in Pakistan:  Intelligence agencies have viewed the Balochistan with suspicion from the very beginning for their reluctance to join Pakistan. This resulted in four earlier rounds of insurgency but none of them lasted this long. And those resistance movements were not for independence but rights, quite unlike this time. Demand for secession is a bitter pill to swallow for any country, more so for a nation that has been seeking strategic depth in Afghanistan at phenomenal costs to itself to counter the Indian behemoth.

As always, “foreign hands” are being accused of destabilising Balochistan with the aim to Balkanise Pakistan. Rhetoric of ‘foreign hands' has allowed for further militarization of Balochistan and given the military a licence to seal the province and make it a no-go zone where it can abduct, torture, kill and display bodies with impunity, extract Balochistan's resources under the barrel of a gun, use Balochistan territory to conduct nuclear tests. However, the military in Balochistan has not been able to control the spirit of the Baloch people.

Government must link rivers without any delay

The editorial urges the government to take affirmative action based on the Supreme Court decision to interlink rivers.

http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/editorials/government-must-link-rivers-without-any-delay/367607.html

When right to private defence is wrong

"A police claim of self-defence to justify encounter killings must be held to higher standards of proof as the force is armed and trained for combat."

The “encounter” deaths of five persons suspected of having carried out two bank robberies in Chennai has once again focused attention on the practice of extrajudicial killings in Tamil Nadu. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : When right to private defence is wrong

In all cases of encounter deaths, the practice is to claim that the killings were done in self-defence. The right of private defence is available to all, and no distinction is made between the police and layman.

Family members of the deceased or human rights activists who wish to reopen suspected cases of false encounter find it an uphill task to get even a death certificate or post-mortem report and are thwarted at every stage, often facing threats to their life.

Though National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a series of guidelines in 2003, the commission now seems to be condoning such violence.

Awaiting its spring

"Staggeringly corrupt and repressed, Saudi Arabia is ripe for revolution. But reformers are hesitant."

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Awaiting its spring: Most of the factors that led to the Arab uprisings are present in Arabia. The Saudi regime holds tens of thousands of political prisoners, most without charge. The scale of corruption is staggering. The expansion in communication tools has deprived the regime of the secrecy and deception on which its legitimacy relied.

Despite the widespread conviction that a change of regime is necessary, reformers remain hesitant about declaring their views, let alone taking action. The level of distrust between activists is so significant, making any collective act of protest difficult.

This does not mean change is impossible. The balance of factors in Arabia is clearly tipping in the direction of change.

Numbers in search of a narrative

"Using voter turnout to predict the outcome of an election is fraught with risks."

Increased voter participation can have many causes. And the voting pattern is as varied as the causes. Unless there is one pre-dominant (and, therefore, easily identifiable) factor in an election, there is no way to analyse how an increased voting percentage will affect the outcome. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Numbers in search of a narrative If the factors are varied, then one factor could counteract another, making any prediction hazardous.

There is no simple co-relation between voter turnout and election outcomes. Without going into the specifics of which section in which area voted in increased numbers, it is pointless to talk about how turnout will impact on the result. The turnout is dependent on voter interest, and this, in many cases, is not any one thing.

No one grand theory will hold; no one methodology is adequate.

Let truth prevail

"The choice of a basement to house the backup power generators that should kick in during an emergency is absurd. If the 9-magnitude earthquake of March 11, 2011 knocked off power supply from the grid, the tsunami that soon followed killed the backup power to the units. "

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Let truth prevail: Japan's regulations are flawed, outdated and below global standards.

Considering the recent admissions by the regulator and the track record of the operator, should the world rely on them to know the truth? Only a thorough investigation by truly impartial and independent scientists can provide the answers. That can happen only if the Fukushima plant is nationalised.