Interesting readings

A talk by Pratap Bhanu Mehta.

Governance 2.0 by Ila Patnaik, on the notions of autonomy and independence for agencies like the CVC.

Trampling on the individual in India:
Jim Yardley in the New York Times. An `Oppressive' Regime Limits Free Speech in India, Civil Liberties Expert Says in the New York Times. How two Mumbai girls changed the Thackeray conversation by G. Pramod Kumar on Firstpost.

Why are India's politicians scared of social media? by Mahima Kaul on UnCut. Conceived in haste, India's Internet law now targeted for change by Niharika Mandhana on the New York Times. It is not enough to solve the IT Act, we need to fix the IPC also.

Ila Patnaik on what ails the Indian economy today: Growing pains and Policy easing won't lift investment.

In the aftermath of the Emkay crash [link, link], Mobis Philipose in Mint worries about where SEBI is going.

A great piece by Devesh Kapur on how wrong Indian official thinking in higher education is.

Morten Jerven on economic measurement in Africa. Seems like a fair description of Indian official statistics to me.

Shareholder lessons: Stay away from Ponty Chadha-like businesses by Arjun Parthasarathy, is linked to a theme from Indian capitalism is not doomed.

One head is better than many: Ila Patnaik on the need for modifying the present Indian financial regulatory architecture.

The misery of a sixteen year old in 1984 in the USSR.

A great debate between Justice Scalia and Justice Breyer of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Marco Arment walks into a new Microsoft store. And, see Charlie Demerjian on the difficulties that they face. Jakob Nielsen, the expert on usability, analyses Windows 8 on the tablet and the computer. So far, the market is giving Microsoft a thumbs-down, with a -9% return over the last six months, net of macroeconomic fluctuations..