Table of Content: Economic and Political Weekly

Vol - XLIX No. 23, June 07, 2014 

Editorials Debating Electoral Systems The first-past-the-post system remains preferable over proportional representation. Read more	Margin Speak Dance of Demonocracy Anand Teltumbde India has never been the democracy as it is made out to be. It has been a pure plutocracy. But for dalits, it is worse; it has been a veritable rule of demons - a demonocracy. Read more
Commentary Bank Privatisation by the Backdoor T T Ram Mohan The P J Nayak Committee on the governance of bank boards has proposed that the Bank Nationalisation Act and related legislation be repealed. It wants government shareholding in public sector banks to be transferred to a Bank Investment Committee... Read more	Commentary The Battles against Modi Akash Bhattacharya Today, we stand at a juncture where the chief beneficiaries of the neo-liberal model of “development” have succeeded in presenting it as the one best suited for everyone’s needs, which the Bharatiya Janata Party has used to... Read more
Commentary Why the Maharashtra Housing Act, 2012 Should Be Repealed Nagendra Goel The Maharashtra Housing (Regulation and Development) Act, 2012 which was enacted after the centre's Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2013 was tabled in Parliament does not protect the home buyer's interests, and also undoes... Read more	Commentary A Milestone in Dalit Writing Uttara Bisht Omprakash Valmiki, who contributed so much to Hindi literature, and especially to dalit literature, was a contemporary of another great dalit poet, Namdeo Dhasal, who wrote in Marathi. Even their deaths were separated by just a month. However,... Read more
Commentary Lightning Risk in India Faisel T Illiyas, Keshav Mohan, Shibu K Mani, A P Pradeepkumar Loss of life and damage to property due to lightning are outside the ambit of disasterrelated relief and are not compensated by the National Calamity and Relief Funds. Assessment of lightning fatality figures and its comparison with other major... Read more	Commentary An Arrested Story P K Vijayan A Delhi University teacher, forced into solitary confinement in an "unda cell" (egg cell), has been charged with conspiring to wage war on the state. Incredible, but there seems to be no limit to which the powers that be can stoop -... Read more
Commentary A Combative Hero: Mukul Sinha Mihir Desai Scientist, lawyer, trade unionist Mukul Sinha fought for justice without losing either his sense of humour or his great courage. His perseverance was responsible for the conviction of Maya Kodnani in the post-Godhra riots, imprisonment of a... Read more	Web Exclusives An Architect of Conscience Mukul Sinha (1951-2014) Manisha Sethi Mukul Sinha’s death remained largely beyond the limelight amid the din over Narendra Modi’s anointment as the next Prime Minister. His steadfastly resolve and meticulous eye for detail, strengths he demonstrated while dealing with... Read more
Book Reviews The New Triad of Policy Concerns Alok Sheel Monetary Policy, Sovereign Debt and Financial Stability: The New Trilemma edited by Deepak Mohanty (New Delhi: Reserve Bank of India, Foundation Books, Cambridge University Press India), 2014, pp xiv + 370, Rs 995. Read more	Book Reviews South Asian Environmental History Lauren Minsky The British Empire and the Natural World: Environmental Encounters in South Asia edited by Deepak Kumar, Vinita Damodaran and Rohan D'Souza (New Delhi: Oxford University Press), 2011; pp XIV + 280,Rs 695. Read more
Insight RTE Grievance Redress in Karnataka Malini Bhatacharjee, Dolashree Mysoor, Arun Sivaramakrishnan Scholarly debates on the right to education in India have primarily focused on examining the content of the right while paying little attention to the institutions enforcing it. A study of the rules under the Right to Education Act in Karnataka... Read more	Special Articles Women’s Mobility and Migration Meenakshi Thapan, Anshu Singh, Nidhitha Sreekumar Muslim women have remained invisible in the larger discourse on migration. This paper shows how Muslim women who have migrated to Jamia Nagar in Delhi are leading a more fulfilling life in their new locality, as is evident from the fact that they... Read more
Special Articles Public Transport for Indian Urban Agglomerations A Strong Case for Surface Rail M Ravibabu, V Phani Sree Central, state and local governments have been investing in public transport infrastructure, especially on metro rail and bus rapid transit systems. However, surface rail-based transit systems, which are ubiquitous and cost-effective in India,... Read more	Notes Developments in the Workforce between 2009-10 and 2011-12 C Rangarajan, Seema, Vibeesh E M After a disappointing performance between 2004-05 and 2009-10, the Indian labour market showed some improvement between 2009-10 and 2011-12. During this two-year period, around 11 million jobs were created at an annual growth rate of around 1.1%... Read more
Web Exclusives Memsahib: Who Are You? Swastika Hore Interestingly, American author Ernest Hemingway used the quaint word memsahib to refer to the wife of an Englishman in his short story The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber set in Africa in the 1930s. How the word, which... Read more	Web Exclusives Did India Just Elect Its Ronald Reagan? Rohan Kalyan Narendra Modi’s decisive victory at the hustings and his pro-market stance has given rise to a spate of comparisons between him and other right-wing historical and contemporary world leaders. The article draws some striking parallels... Read more
Web Exclusives A Sting in the Tale Pramod K Nayar The increase in the number of sting operations conducted by the media today, perhaps, reflects a growing culture of surveillance where the governed, who were the ones surveilled, now become surveillers, and the governors are now in the position... Read more	Blogs Reflections on a River and its people Swedish filmmaker Arne Sucksdorff visited India in 1950 and out of this visit came short films: Village Hindou (Hindu Village) about the lack of water in an Indian village, andVinden och floden (The Wind and the River), about...