Economic & Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Revenge of the East

Vol - L No. 3, January 17, 2015 

• Editorials

The best tribute to the dead of Charlie Hebdo is the debate on freedom of speech that has now opened up.

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Inflation Targeting as Policy Option for India

Vol - L No. 3, January 17, 2015 | Renu Kohli 

• Commentary

Inflation targeting may have its benefits but the timing of India’s ongoing transition to IT – an adverse domestic and global macroeconomic context – poses signifi cant risks to a successful implementation. Moreover, the evidence of IT having a positive impact comes from the pre-financial crisis era; more recent studies of the emerging market economies over a longer period show the non-IT countries growing faster than those which have adopted IT.

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Commentary In the Era of the Neo-Fascist, Neo-liberal Coalition Narendra Modi’s Intellectual Brigade Sumanta Banerjee In a peculiar re-enactment of the fascist past, sections of the Indian intellectual community are displaying a horrifying moral ambiguity in their slow drift into a system that typifi es a dangerous and opportunist liaison between the forces of... Read more	Web Exclusives Notes on a Literary Death V Geetha The vicious campaign by local Hindu and caste groups in Tamil Nadu against the prolific Tamil writer Perumal Murugan’s book Mathorupagan is rooted in the perverse politics of caste honour. Also, this strategy of bullying... Read more
Special Articles Industrial Conflict in India in the Post-Reform Period Who Said All Is Quiet on the Industrial Front? K R Shyam Sundar The processes of liberalisation, globalisation, and privatisation were expected to weaken the bargaining power of workers vis-à-vis employers and lead to a reduction in the number and frequency of industrial conflicts. However, the reform... Read more	Editorials Two Films, Two Opinions The courts must decide whether free expression is a constitutional right. Read more
Editorials Massive Achievement A mandate from across ethnic and social groups in Sri Lanka has felled the mighty Rajapaksa regime. Read more	Special Articles Karpoori Thakur: A Socialist Leader in the Hindi Belt Jagpal Singh Born in a poor Nai (barber) family, Karpoori Thakur, a committed socialist, played an important role in politics of Bihar for more than four decades between the 1950s and 1980s. He introduced controversial policies of reservation (the "Karpoori... Read more
Commentary V R Krishna Iyer: A Long Life in Law and Politics Vikram Raghavan I was 12 when I first heard of Krishna Iyer. It was a steamy Madras morning in July 1987. That day’s Indian Expressannounced that the retired judge would be the Opposition’s presidential candidate. He was to face R... Read more	Commentary Ghar Wapsi: Political Agenda, Religious Garb Rudolf C Heredia An appropriate response is not to curtail legitimate civil liberties or democratic freedoms, for this could have even more dangerous political and social consequences in areas of civil liberties and democratic rights, but rather to work towards... Read more
Notes BJP's Youth Vote Dividend Deepankar Basu, Kartik Misra An examination of age-wise voting and preferences in the 2014 elections reveals that the Bharatiya Janata Party benefi ted from youth and first-time voters showing a high preference for the party relative to other age groups. Read more	Commentary Responses to Rape in Schools Sujatha Rao The safety guidelines for schools in Karnataka that mandate cultures of surveillance and control are inadequate to prevent the systematic abuse of children in schools. Systems that place child welfare at the heart of schooling and school... Read more
Commentary Progress in Reducing Child Under-Nutrition Evidence from Maharashtra Sunny Jose, K S Hari Assessing the progress made in reducing under-nutrition among children who are less than two years old in Maharashtra between 2005-06 and 2012, this article points out that child under-nutrition, especially stunting, declined signifi cantly in... Read more	Special Articles Assessing Bihar's Coupon-Based PDS Importance of Local Context Chetan Choithani, Bill Pritchard The public distribution system remains the bedrock of India's food security system and the Food Security Act (2013) has only increased its importance. At the same time, the PDS administration has been subject to reform, change and experimentation... Read more
Perspectives Rethinking Assessments in Schools Disha Nawani This article examines the nature of two varied forms of assessments like the continuous comprehensive evaluation and end-of-the-year exams, studies the variations in the principles underlying them and presents a case for an assessment that is... Read more	Reports From the States / Web Exclusives Corporate Responsibility for Bhopal How Union Carbide Exploited a Government Loophole K Subramanian Union Carbide Corporation managed to wrangle out of the Bhopal gas tragedy by exploiting a loophole in the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. If governments are not vigilant, other companies, ushered for “Make in India”, would do the... Read more
Discussion Our Moral Compass Remains True Shameran Abed Two responses to "Has Microfinance Lost Its Moral Compass?" (David Hulme and Mathilde Maitrot, EPW, 29 November 2014). The first argues that microfinance institutions in Bangladesh remain client-focused and mission-oriented. The second... Read more	Discussion High Interest Rates Are an Amorality in Microfinance R Seenivasan David Hulme and Mathilde Maitrot’s article on amorality of money in EPW (“Has Microfinance Lost Its Moral Compass?”, 29 November 2014) is timely and well-researched to illustrate one of the successes in development turning into... Read more
Book Reviews Practice of Caste in Higher Education Amman Madan Beyond Inclusion: The Practice of Equal Access in Indian Higher Education edited by Satish Deshpande and Usha Zacharias (New Delhi: Routledge), 2013; pp 356, Rs 415 (hardback). Read more	Book Reviews Chandernagore: A 'Glorious Chapter' in the History of Independence Akhila Yechury Chandernagore: From Bondage to Freedom, 1900-1955 by Sailendra Nath Sen (Delhi: Primus Books), 2012; pp xv + 376, Rs 1,150. Read more
Book Reviews Window to a Crisis-Ridden Period Arun Kumar Left of Centre: Kamal Morarka in Parliament edited by Lina Mathias (New Delhi: Rupa Publications), 2013; pp xviii + 267, Rs 495. Read more	Web Exclusives Misreading Charlie Hebdo Where Critics Went Wrong with the ‘Muslim’ Question Kaushik Dasgupta Charlie Hebdo’s critics have got one thing wrong – the real target of such terrorist attacks  is not the “Islamophobic” Western establishment, it is the Muslim heretic who wants to defy the cleric and... Read more
Web Exclusives Will the Neoliberal Economy Change? Verdict of the Sri Lanka Elections The Collective for Economic Democratisation While the election victory for President Maithripala Sirisena was due to a unique political moment that united minorities and many in the Sinhala electorate to vote out an authoritarian regime, expectations of major change in economic policy need... Read more