Sickle cell: The battle for disability justice

In March 2024, the Indian government issued revised guidelines under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016. These guidelines provide a framework for assessing the extent of disability of people with two copies of the sickle cell gene, or with both sickle cell and beta thalassaemia, or Hb D. Sickle cell disease (SCD) … Read more

Lessons from Gauri Lankesh’s murder trial

The Gauri Lankesh murder trial began only in March 2022 — nearly five years after she was shot dead in front of her house — and has moved at a glacial pace.   | Photo Credit: The Hindu Two years ago, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said at an event commemorating journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder … Read more

Building a library of all the books in the world

The intellectual property (IP) world — the complex labyrinth of laws, lobbyists, court rulings, corporate interests, and legal treatises that protects creativity — can be bewildering at times. This is the world where Disney lobbied Congress to extend the copyright term, helping keep Mickey Mouse out of the public domain as the U.S. copyright term … Read more

Letters to The Editor — September 3, 2025

Better ties with China The fact that India and China have expressed their commitment to a fair resolution of the border issue augurs well for bilateral relations between the two neighbours (Front page, September 1). One only hopes that this commitment would lead to a faster de-escalation and withdrawal of troops along the Line of … Read more

The Supreme Court to the soldier’s rescue

‘Why should the government not be flexible and forthcoming in implementing the rules for the benefit of all defence and security personnel?’ | Photo Credit: AP It was with a sense of relief that one read about the Supreme Court of India taking up, suo motu following a media report, the case of cadets who … Read more

Buried in rubble: on the Afghanistan earthquake 

Afghanistan reeled on Monday in the wake of a strong earthquake and multiple after-shocks, killing over 1,400 people, and injuring at least 3,100. According to the United States Geological Survey, the primary tremor was an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 and had struck near Jalalabad, Nangarhar province. After the first tremor, of magnitude 6.3, at a … Read more

Rethinking carbon pricing and taxes

India’s free trade agreement (FTA) with the U.K., heralded as the gold standard by the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, has a lot going for it. Yet, it does not address the one imminent policy instrument that is likely to significantly upend its possible benefits for India. The U.K.’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism … Read more