One, there is a post-Bhopal gas disaster generation in the country. These young people do not know what happened that night or about the events that followed. They are shocked to see the scale of human suffering and stilled by the sheer injustice.

Sunita Narain: The Bhopal challenge

Business Standard

Before that, my life was puttering along fairly smoothly. I had enough work, the house looked all right as long as your standards were flexible, and I read a fair number of books. I was happy.

13/12/06: a black, black day

There is a dreaded spectre among the G20 today. It is the letter W. Not pronounced Dubya, it stands for double-dip recession. The reach of this fear has shaped the kinder, gentler treatment given to BP for what has to be one of the greatest environmental crimes of all time.

Indira Rajaraman: Lessons for the G20

I was in Mumbai on that December night in 1984 when the gas leak tragedy struck Bhopal. I was head of an American multinational&rsquo;s Indian subsidiary, a company not unlike Union Carbide, whose managing director happened to be my friend. We were among the few foreign companies that had stayed on and had toughened under the punishing conditions of the &ldquo;license-quota-permit raj&rdquo;. I was in shock over the horrific human tragedy but my sadness came from another thought: What if it had been me? I put myself in his shoes and wondered if I would have acted differently. Probably not, and I thought about human vulnerability and how unbelievable lucky I was.

Gurcharan Das: On moral luck and human vulnerability

Helloooo&hellip;,&rdquo; we heard a loud voice echoing in the hills when we were returning after a long hike. &ldquo;Can you hear me?&rdquo; While the person on the other side of the line couldn&rsquo;t, people all the way down the hillside definitely could. The caller dialled again. &ldquo;Hellooo,&rdquo; he shouted again. A collective sigh of relief was heaved when the connection turned out to be good. The caller loudly inquired about a wedding that had taken place the night before. &ldquo;I get it! He&rsquo;s talking to his sister who lives near Nainital,&rdquo; deduced a bystander. &ldquo;Ask them if they have electricity!&rdquo; a voice from nowhere piped up. Without missing a beat, the caller did as told, and relayed the answer to the disembodied voice. Another voice asked about the gifts the bride brought. The caller, with nary a thought for his ticking phone bill, relayed the requisite details.

Geetanjali Krishna: The Connection Point at Pangot

The more sophisticated a society, the more highly specialised the professionals. To paraphrase Adam Smith, specialists can maximise value-addition by developing greater expertise. So, a deep, narrow knowledge base is useful, especially in academics.

Devangshu Datta: Dropped catches of medical history

Sssh,&rdquo; my wife whispered to me, which was strange considering there was no one else in the house, &ldquo;you must never, ever tell anyone this&rdquo; &mdash; even though she herself had just got off the phone with various members of the clan to share what appeared to be the secret she was now bent upon disseminating to me. &ldquo;Cross my heart,&rdquo; I whispered back solemnly, for though I might appear disinterested, I enjoy my in-laws&rsquo; waywardnesses, and anything that affects them is a source of curiosity to me.

Kishore Singh: Consensually challenged

The young man with the thin white stick at the traffic light was obviously blind. He was not a destitute but needy. His very modest shirt and trousers bore testimony to that. As the traffic halted on the light turning red, he carefully got off the kerb, felt his way through to whatever was within reach &mdash; scooter, car or truck driver&rsquo;s cabin &mdash; and sought whatever people had to offer.

Subir Roy: There are beggars and beggars

On a stone pillar in My Son, an ancient, now-ruined temple town in central Vietnam, is a long inscription in Sanskrit. It records that Bhadravarman, a king who ruled at the cusp of the 4th and 5th centuries, donated wealth to the nearby temple of Shiva.

The India in Indo-China

Tasting menus in India range from mediocre to incredibly good.

Navigating the tasting menu

Few politicians provoked such contrary views as P V Narasimha Rao whose largely ignored 90th birth anniversary last Monday showed that controversy dogs him even in death.

Sunanda K Datta-Ray: The outsider

The Ambanis have a formidable business reputation, with skilful media management to match. There is a constant stream of newspaper column inches given over to writing about their business growth, deals done, and projects in the offing &mdash; to the extent that it becomes difficult to sift reality from hype.

T N Ninan: The fairest of them all?

Thanks to the Ketan Desai episode, we are at a point pregnant with possibilities for reform in the practice of, and education in, the health professions. The most fundamental human right is the right to life. And that is an empty phrase without health and health care. In this basic area of human welfare, we are still far from our &ldquo;tryst with destiny&rdquo;. Many respected commissions have produced well-thought-out recommendations on how this distance may be covered, beginning with the Bhore Committee Report in 1946, but all in vain.

P Zachariah: Reforming health councils

When I was growing up in India, we used the word &lsquo;captain&rsquo; to refer to someone who was in charge of navigating a ship through stormy seas. So, when I first heard the term &lsquo;captains of industry&rsquo;, I was a little puzzled.

'We must have ambitions beyond profits and votes'

When a gurdwara serves food at a langar, everyone, including the head of the state, loves to eat it.

Sreelatha Menon: The taste of shame

The Rolling Stones story on US General Stanley A McChrystal&rsquo;s comments on President Barrack Obama and his team has brought to the fore not just the uneasy civil-military relations in the United States, but also a major divide in the Obama national security team on the war in Afghanistan. McChrystal&rsquo;s counter insurgency (COIN) strategy of &lsquo;clear, hold, build and transfer&rsquo; hinged on more &lsquo;boots on the ground&rsquo; to reduce use of aerial power and consequent civilian casualties, provide protection to the populace and build on the host nation&rsquo;s trust and capacity, was opposed by the rest of Obama&rsquo;s Af-Pak team.

Shanthie Mariet D'Souza: Afghanistan - Deminting a General&#39;s COIN

On the face of it, the visit of the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to New Delhi last month was rather successful. India and Sri Lanka signed a range of agreements including loans for major infrastructure projects and sharing of electricity. India has extended a line of credit of $200 million to assist in the setting up of the NTPC-CEB joint venture 500 Mw thermal power plant at Trincolamalee. The two nations also decided to set up an annual defence dialogue and increase high-level military exchanges. India has agreed to construct a rail link between Talaimannar and Madhu in the Northern Province.

Harsh V Pant: The importance of being Sri Lanka

Why all human endeavour is destined to end up as a thrilling new computer game.

The pastoral life reinvented

A broad-based equity portfolio now makes more sense than, either debt or commodity baskets.

Time of uncertainties

The United Nations (UN) report on progress in attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that countries set for themselves paints a disappointing picture of slow improvement. While the report acknowledges that gains have been made in areas like poverty reduction, elementary education, child health and drinking water supply in several parts of the developing world, these are not always on track and more can clearly be done. The report recognises that there has been a setback in hunger mitigation in recent years due to the sharp spike in food prices in 2008 and on account of the impact of the global economic crisis. Jobs have been lost, and economic access to food has been curbed.

MDG - numbers vs. reality

Just when questions were beginning to be asked whether the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was being taken for granted by an assertive Union finance ministry &mdash; a question raised by North Block&rsquo;s ordinance last month creating a &ldquo;joint committee&rdquo; of heads of regulatory institutions in the financial sector chaired by the Union finance minister &mdash; the central bank has acted to show that it has a mind of its own.

RBI's alive and kicking

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