Features

‘No harm in elevating the status (of the Lokpal) to a Constitutional body’

Dhirendra K Jha

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi heads the parliamentary Standing Committee in charge of formulating India’s Lokpal Bill. The committee has submitted reports on two other pieces of anti-graft legislation: the Whistleblower and Judicial Accountability bills. He spoke to Dhirendra K Jha on how the Lokpal Bill, together with the two other bills already cleared by the parliamentary panel, will serve as an important bulwark against corruption

Internet Shopping: The Second Wave

Deepa Krishnan

Their existence is old news. But their essence is still evolving. Which is why online shops could yet transform us as consumers

Schmoozer’s List

Rahul Bhatia

The directory of India’s most wanted phone numbers

Somalia’s Nowhere People

Avantika Bhuyan

They have been let into the country but do not have permission to make a living here

The Samurai Spirit

Aniruddha Bahal

A tragedy of gigantic proportions can also be an inflexion point for a country with an innate urge to bounce back. So it could be for Japan

The Right to Disagree

Parvaiz Bukhari

What hope does a free exchange of ideas have in a litfest whose organisers themselves won’t stomach dissent?

(Fading) Superpower Games

Shougat Dasgupta

America has taken upon itself this last decade to reshape the world in its own disfigured image. Will it spend the next decade recoiling from the result?

The Death of Counterculture

Shougat Dasgupta

Even ten years after 9/11, American popular culture continues to mimic the hollow piety of the political establishment. Granted the honourable exceptions

Anna’s Taandava

Kalpish Ratna

The wave of recent popular uprisings, including our very own, are reminiscent of an ancient cathartic tradition. Some will remember it as the Dancing Mania