Preservation laws have made trees a problem for people STATE monopolies are not exclusive to modern times. Mining was the preserve of the state in ancient and medieval times. The Mughal state exercised an iron hand over opium production and trade. Once the Mughal empire declined, satraps asserted their independence by establishing monopolies over various commodities including tobacco and
Have you noticed how the mighty automobile industry in the US is beginning to sound like the now infamous tobacco industry at the time of its collapse, taking cover behind the people it employed to
An interview with Tilman A Ruff, Australian head of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). At Jadugoda in East Singhbhum, Jharkhand, he observed a human settlement perilously close to the mines of Uranium Corporation of India.
Rulers are as good as their advisors. Effective ones have a healthy diversity presidents and premiers make interesting case studies after leaving office. The likes of Mikhail Gorbachev and Bill Clinton have made an industry out of being former heads of government. Tony Blair, now out of work, is a new entrant into this club, and is not its best exponent. In Delhi recently, he revealed a
Who does the health system help really? It has victims in both poor and rich countries the elaborate system of public health care, with all its medicines, interventions and doctors, has been developed on a simple premise: to help people. But more often than not it ends up doing the opposite. Examples abound. One of the latest is that of 13-year-old Hannah Jones of Britain, who decided to
