Daily Hindu Editorials

It is a sad comment that courts need to keep curbing interference in love and marriage Each time the Supreme Court feels impelled to remind khap panchayats and the society at large that they have no business interfering in the life choices of individuals regarding marriage and love, it is an implicit commentary on our times. The frequency with which one hears the court’s warnings against groups and individuals obstructing inter-faith or inter-caste relationships reaffirms the fact that the social milieu continues to be under the sway of the medieval-minded. The court’s latest observations that khap panchayats should not act as though they are conscience-keepers of society and that no one should interfere in relationships between adults came while it was hearing a writ petition seeking a ban on such community organisations and guidelines to put an end to “honour killings”. In 2011, the highest court termed such khaps “kangaroo courts”, declared them i...

India’s rejection of secondary patents has kept blockbuster medicines affordable for many The global sales of the world’s best-selling prescription drug, Humira, continue to grow even after the expiry of the patent over its main ingredient, adalimumab, a biologic used for the treatment of arthritis. By 2020, AbbVie Inc, makers of Humira, expects its sales to touch $21 billion — a figure that will surpass India’s pharmaceutical exports for that year. But success has its price. In 2015, faced with the imminent expiry of the patent for Humira’s main ingredient, AbbVie reassured investors that the “Broad U.S. Humira Patent Estate” — a list of 75 secondary patents in the U.S. for new indications, new methods of treatment, new formulations, and the like — would take care of the problem. But what was the problem? Patents offer their owners market exclusivity for a limited period of time. For medicines, this exclusivity should last as long...

The Maldives crisis highlights a long-standing debate: has being a democracy shaped India’s approach to the region? An interesting feature of Southern Asia for decades has been the existence of a liberal democracy in India, in a region inhabited largely by non-plural or mixed regimes. A commitment to political and civil liberties, human rights, social and economic freedoms, and, a secular ethos are the hallmarks of India’s Constitution. The commitment to internal diversity and pluralism has shaped the outlook towards international politics as well. Many in the West, who felt that India’s identity as a democracy had been muted during the Cold War, expected that the ‘end of history’ thesis would also apply to India, that its leaders and elites would finally recognise the post-Cold War consensus around liberal democracy and capitalism and that this would define India’s international identity and emerging role. 🔹Concert of democracies In 2000, ...

The RBI has stressed the need for vigilance on price stability amid fresh uncertainties The Reserve Bank of India’s decision to keep the repo rate unchanged was no surprise given the focus with which the Monetary Policy Committee has approached its mandate: of keeping inflation in check. With the relevant measure of price gains, the Consumer Price Index, reflecting an acceleration in inflation for a sixth straight month in December, and that at the fastest pace in 17 months, the bank’s rate-setting panel must have had little difficulty in choosing to remain on hold. This was probably best exemplified by the reversal in stance of the six-member panel’s hitherto most dovish member, Ravindra H. Dholakia, to vote to stand pat on interest rates. This the MPC did while retaining a ‘neutral stance’, which gives it the flexibility to change gears in either direction. The RBI’s nominee, Michael Debabrata Patra, in fact voted to head off incipient price pressu...

‘Operation Cactus’, India’s swift intervention in the Maldives, was riveting till the end ‘Operation Cactus’, the code name for India’s military intervention in the Maldives in 1988, following an attempted coup d’état against the government of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and his request for help, was spontaneous and swift. But its finale, in mid-ocean, was a rescue operation that had a thorny side to it. On learning about the swift landing of an Indian Army parachute brigade at Hulule airport adjacent to the island capital of Male, the mercenaries of the Sri Lankan rebel group, the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), ran for cover after randomly grabbing people from the mainland and holding them hostage on board a hijacked merchant vessel, MV Progress Light, that had been anchored in Male harbour. Among this motley group of seven hostages was a Maldivian cabinet minister and his mother-in-law. As the hijacked...

The slowdown in private investments is visible chiefly in the informal sector, not the corporate sector It is now well recognised that there is an investment slowdown in India, which is delaying a full-blooded recovery in the economy. Private investments, the principle engine of growth, are out of steam. The fall is so severe that it has more than offset the government’s macroeconomic stimulus of increased public investments. The slowdown started five years ago, and is, as Economic Survey 2018 notes, the most severe in India’s history. Investments peaked 11 years ago. The Survey recommends urgent prioritisation of investment revival to arrest more lasting growth impacts, with policy focus on both big and small companies, creating a conducive environment for the smaller industries to prosper and invest, with their ‘animal spirits’ conjured back. That will not be enough to restart the private investments cycle. 🔹Why the slowdown A day after the Survey c...