Daily Hindu Editorials

Mining activity in Goa should now begin on a clean slate The Supreme Court order to halt the murky course that mining has taken in Goa should help restore some balance to the exploitation of iron and manganese ore in the ecologically fragile State. As the court observed this week in the Goa Foundation case, commercial mining activity can be rapacious in the absence of clearly laid down and strictly enforced conditions. This is exactly what has happened in Goa, with the State government displaying shocking disregard for rules and processes while renewing licences for a second time in 2015. It inexplicably chose not to exercise its right to view the licences as fresh leases that require new environmental impact assessments. The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Goa invited a cloud of suspicion by hastily launching the renewal of licences just a day after it unveiled a Grant of Mining Leases Policy on November 4, 2014. Quite extraordinarily, it issued 31 orders on a single day, Januar

A coalition between the Social and Christian Democrats is in Germany’s larger interests The decision of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to form a new coalition government is no surprise. Since the emergence of the CDU’s Angela Merkel as German Chancellor in 2005, both have cohabited in a coalition for eight years. After the two parties registered their worst showing in the September 2017 general elections, they lost whatever little appetite remained to rule together. The SPD had declared it would stay in the opposition, rebuild the weak organisation and re-establish its core left-wing identity. The latest arrangement is a result of political pragmatism and a willingness to accord primacy to the national interest, despite ideological differences. Germany had come close to calling another election after the conservatives failed to reach an understanding with the greens and the liberals late last year. That meant a minority governme

The fiscal deficit rule has been honoured more in breach than in observance. We need better discipline After the enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act in 2003 and the related FRBM Rules in 2004, the target fiscal deficit to GDP ratio of 3% for the Union government was achieved only once, in 2007-08, when it was 2.5%. That achievement has yet to be emulated again. The FRBM Act was amended twice, in 2012 and 2015. The revisions in 2015 shifted the date for achieving the 3% target to 2017-18. By this year, the amended revenue deficit target was put at 2% of GDP. 🔹Resetting the framework Budget 2018-19 has proposed amending the FRBM Act again, which will shift the target of 3% fiscal deficit-GDP ratio to end-March 2021. No target has been set for revenue deficit. The new statutory anchors relate to the general and Central government debt-GDP ratios that are to be reduced to 60% and 40% of GDP, respectively, by 2024-25, based on the recommendations of t

All medical systems strive for one purpose — help the ill get well. Would it not be ideal if traditional and scientific medical systems were integrated into one system of curative medicine? If the physician knew all systems, the patient could be treated with the best, instead of the patient choosing a particular system. This romantic view, desiring the integration of all medical systems, is naive and unrealistic. Traditional and scientific medical systems cannot be integrated. 🔹The traditional way To understand this cruel reality, we must know what is common and what the differences are among them. All cultures wanted explanations why some fell ill while others did not, and, what remedies cure different illnesses. All had come up with concepts, dogmas and beliefs, as well as many treatment modalities. Three examples that have survived the test of time are the ancient Indian and Chinese traditional systems and the more recent homoeopathy. All of them are together called ‘traditional