Cover July 24, 2010	[PERSPECTIVES] A Left Approach to Development  Prabhat Patnaik Against the “means-based approach” to development that the bourgeoisie projects, the left must project a “rights-based approach”. Since “rights” are guarantors of welfare gains, every winning of rights likewise strengthens them  [Abstract]  [Full Article]

India’s unique identification number project has been sold on the promise that it will make every citizen, the poor in particular, visible to the State  [Abstract]  [Full Article]

All discussion of illegal mining, specially of iron ore, has to keep in mind two things. First, the nature of legality cannot be defined in narrow terms of mining laws, but needs to cover the environmental and social goods that lie in its ambit  [Abstract]  [Full Article]

The nuclear radiation in a scrap market in west Delhi’s Mayapuri area, in April 2010, which led to the death of a worker and fatal injuries to many others is a shocking reminder of weaknesses in the system for tracking minor radioactive substances  [Abstract]  [Full Article]

While the “rarest of the rare” doctrine has made capital sentencing a very infrequent event in India, it has also turned the country’s system of capital jurisprudence into a lethal lottery  [Abstract]  [Full Article]

Using a field survey, this paper examines the empowerment effects of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme on rural women in Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh  [Abstract]  [Full Article]

Why is the public space being so heavily sexualised?  [Abstract]  [Full Article]

Frequent accidents reveal an apathy in the railway management and at the ministerial level towards safety concerns  [Abstract]  [Full Article]

In order to draw out and measure dimensions of agency (the capacity to make choices through the acquisition of a sense of self and a sense of personal competence) among unmarried young women and men, a survey was undertaken among young people in rura  [Abstract]  [Full Article]

India’s annually renewable water resources are finite, subject to uncertain climatic variability. These resources have to be systematically monitored and managed to meet the legitimate needs of a diverse society  [Abstract]  [Full Article]

The State Finance Commission, although a technical and quasijudicial constitutional entity like the Union Finance Commission, has to help local governments plan for economic development and deliver social justice and public services at the local leve  [Abstract]  [Full Article]

Windows of Opportunity: Memoirs of an Economic Adviser by K S Krishnaswamy; Orient BlackSwan in Association with Sameeksha Trust, Hyderabad, 2010; pp 190, Rs 440.  [Abstract]  [Full Article]