Daily Hindu Editorials

India must maintain its steady course of strengthening ties with Iran In purely bilateral terms, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to India was pitch perfect in content and optics. After his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India and Iran signed agreements and memorandums of understanding on a wide variety of issues. Among the announcements was the decision to award India the contract to operate the Chabahar Shahid Beheshti port terminal after the project is completed. While no announcement was made on the Farzad-B gas field that India has expressed an interest in, the joint statement indicates that positive deliberations may follow. There were discussions on enhancing trade and investment and ease of doing business between India and Iran, including a double taxation avoidance agreement and an expert group to recommend “trade remedy measures”. Just before Mr. Rouhani’s visit, India announced it would allow Indian investment in Iran to be done in rupee terms. The conce

The efficiencies of the direct benefit transfer for fertilizer subsidies should be increasingly visible Across the hinterlands of the country, a silent revolution is taking place. Each time a farmer purchases fertilizers from a dealer, he/she presses his or her thumb at a point-of-sale (PoS) device and an authenticated receipt comes out giving details of the purchase and subsidy to be paid by the government directly to the manufacturer. The records of dealers are automatically updated and payment is made digitally or in cash. Farmers, especially those purchasing urea, who were facing constraints of availability and occasionally overcharged in the past, now receive it at a printed price with complete transparency. Welcome to the world of direct benefit transfer (DBT) in fertilizers. 🔹The pilot project Unlike DBT in LPG where subsidy is directly transferred to the consumer’s bank, and in food where pilot projects of DBT replacing physical delivery of rations have taken place, DBT in

Without doubt, like every nation-state, India seeks its own advantage in international relationships, including within the South Asian region. But the repeated experience is that of New Delhi generating animosities, with attitudes and actions that go against its own interests. This forces one to ask from nearby Kathmandu, is there a structural issue with India’s foreign affairs oversight — or is this question itself taboo? Take the case of Nepal, a country where friendship with India comes naturally even more than being a necessity, due to cultural, social and economic linkages over the open border. But, perhaps because of global preoccupations, New Delhi seems to constantly under-estimate Kathmandu’s fierce sense of self. The stratagem over the decades has been to try to influence Kathmandu’s politicos, forgetting that they too survive within the milieu of Nepali politics. The legacy of ‘big brother’ started with Jawaharlal Nehru — Nepal’s statesman B.P. Koirala in his memoir has pi

Voters turn out in large numbers, as Tripura sees a rare challenge to the formidable LF Voters in Tripura once again came out in large numbers for the Assembly election on Sunday, with initial estimates putting the turnout at almost 90%. This is close to the 91.82% turnout in the previous Assembly election in 2013 and more than the 84.72% for the 2014 Lok Sabha election. One explanation for these high figures is that the electorate is more organisationally mobilised than in other States. The CPI(M)-led Left Front has been in power in Tripura since 1993, and until recently another victory for the Left Front would have been regarded as a given. After all, the LF’s popularity had steadily increased in its years in power, peaking in 2013 with a 52.33% vote share and a harvest of 50 of the 60 Assembly seats. Its support base has encompassed both tribal and non-tribal regions of the small State. This is largely due to the good work done by the government in improving primary health and educ

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it is said in Turkey, now channels the French monarch, Louis XIV — l’état, c'est moi (I am the state). Anyone who crosses Mr. Erdoğan is seen as an enemy of the state, regardless of his or her politics. Most recently, some intellectuals have been found guilty of this crime and sentenced to ‘aggravated life imprisonment’, the highest sentence in the country (the death penalty is banned). These people are distinguished journalists, novelists and academics and hold differing political opinions. Ahmet Altan (journalist and novelist) and his brother Mehmet Altan (professor of economics) are both left-liberals. Nazli Ilicak (journalist) is an archconservative. Ahmet Altan has been accused of giving “subliminal pro-coup” signals on a television programme two years ago. 🔹Mass purge After the failed coup of July 15, 2016, Mr. Erdoğan began a purge of all institutions in Turkey, removing anyone who he felt differed with his agenda. Taking its orders from

We must be alert that just as easily as foul air, even a little bit of hate and anger rapidly spreads Things do change, with a whimper and not with a bang. Changes in our lives creep upon us and before we know it they become part of our daily habits. This is true of changes in society as well as in nature. Earlier, Bengaluru used to be known for its gardens and greenery. Even the Kannada spoken in Bengaluru was leisurely and didn’t trip over its syllables in a hurry. We drank water off the taps and had no fans in our houses. Today, Bengaluru has become a developed city. We boast of the world’s first burning lake, of increasing incidences of diseases related to the low quality of air, and a falling public health profile. The list could go on. These problems are part of every town and city in India. 🔹An indicator of our indifference We do not really know how we got from there to here. Like most development, changes often happen silently and outside our control. The recent report that