Through Vikram Doctor and Titoo Ahluwalia I received an email about the medieval and abhorrent Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalizes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” with punishment upto life imprisonment. Section 377 is being challenged by various groups in the Delhi High Court lead by Naz India, a [...]

The next Bombay Bloggers Meet will be held on Saturday, April 29, at 4 pm at the Cafe Coffee Day, Nirmal Lifestyles, Mulund, Regal Barista on Colaba Causeway, I have the pleasure of announcing that Nitin Pai of the Acorn will be flying down to Mumbai just to meet up with all of us! Important Update: [...]

The gross miscarriage of justice in the Jessica Lal case is symptomatic of the fact that Indian socialists have an extremely warped notion of the role of the state. Nehru wanted to make steel; Indira added banks, insurance, mines, airlines and what not; and Manmohan wants the state to teach the unlettered and give jobs [...]

The Mises Institute has a thought provoking article on zoning, comparing it to theft. Zoning uses all the standard interventionist lines of thought, most notably the concepts of externalities and utility. Those who advocate zoning really believe that acting man does not have the ability to create communities that are functional and prosperous. Without plans and [...]

The Freakonomics blog has an interesting letter from a 10 year old in India. Hello. I am Rohan Patel, I am 10 years old. Your book was amazing! I loved it, but I found one mistake in it. In the chapter “What Makes A Perfect Parent?” it says that changing schools does not have an impact [...]

Headlines Today is having a panel discussion on blogging today at 1:30 pm. I’m on the panel along with Sabeer Bhatia who talks about his new blogeverywhere concept, Pawan Duggal, the IT lawyer, and Arindam Chaudhari of IIPM. Watch it if you can. I’ll post a transcript next week.

While considering the merits of the judicial order to demolish over 18000 private buildings in Delhi, a few plain truths must be borne in mind. First and foremost is the fact that overbuilding and overcrowding are not caused by private greed. Rather, they are a result of poor transportation. There is surely enough land in [...]

Reading between the lines of the budget, it was clear the 1,00,000 crore rupees (or 1 trillion rupees) are being stolen from the citizenry by the personnel of ‘the system’, both elected as well as appointed. 50,000 crore rupees (500 billion) are being spent on the 8 ‘flagship programmes’, including the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Sarva [...]

This article of mine appeared, in a slightly abridged form, in The Times of India recently. I cannot find the link: Sexual morality is very big in India. The entire establishment is sexually straitlaced. A couple kissing on the dance floor led to the police closing down a Chennai hotel. Mumbai’s dance bars were shut down [...]

My column, “Antidote”, which ran in The Economic Times from 1998-2002 is back, this time as a monthly offering on The New Indian Express on Sunday. This time, the topic of discussion is imports, and why “import-promotion” is a very good idea! Enjoy the difference!