Web Exclusives

The recent deposit ponzi scam in West Bengal and the proliferation of such dodgy small-depositor financial schemes in other parts of the country point to the inadequate role of financial regulators. Despite ample examples of the misery they cause, the regulators have not yet responded to the challenges, leaving poor investors at the mercy of the scamsters.

Not since the 1970 election have the people of Pakistan turned out in such great numbers to vote. Two differences are notable, however. First, while in 1970 they voted the Pakistan People’s Party to power, this time, they came out in droves to boot it out. Second, while 1970 was a time of great hope and optimism, this year cynicism was palpable even as they voted. This was understandable as all the main contesting parties appeared committed irrevocably to the same market liberalism that has characterised Pakistan’s governments for the last three decades. In the end, people followed the only path open to them in most democracies: vote the incumbent out, even if the alternatives promise more of the same!

This article draws on archival material from the records of the University of Delhi to recount the last major change in its undergraduate programme in 1943 when the present three year BA course was introduced replacing the two year intermediate followed by a two year BA. That change took almost two decades of consultations and debate before they were accepted and implemented and provide an insightful comparison to the current proposals for changing the University’s undergraduate programme.

Expressing unease with the celebration of Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy, this article argues that the medical industry has played a masterstroke by casting the mastectomy debate in terms of an older “rights discourse” of the women’s movement. It suggests that the feminist and progressive movement hit back by asking questions to the scientific establishment about access, costs, and the necessity of specific forms of treatment. That may be the way forward towards not only accountability to “consumers”, but actually for equitable health-care for all.

Delhi University’s academic reforms reveal the dangers of a new style of administration emerging in Indian universities that replaces multi-level autonomous academic deliberation with centralised sovereign decision making.