Viswanathan K's Thoughts

Delhi suffers from smog every winter. The biggest cause for that, of course, is pollution. A lesser cause, but not a trivial one, is because of the crop residue being burnt in neighbouring Punjab. And therein lies a tale , one narrated very well by Pranay Kotasthane.   The problem isn’t that the crop residue is being burnt; rather, it is that it is burnt simultaneously across many farms in a very short time period (the first week of November). Ok, so why’s that the case? And can the problem be reduced by spread over a larger time period?   In theory, sure. In practice, no. Why not? Because the kharif crop (paddy) is sowed after June 15: “This leads to a delayed output leaving farmers with very little time to clear the field for the next crop. ” But that just raises a new question – why is the crop sowed late? And would sowing it sooner help with Delhi’s smog problem?   No. Because the Punjab government’s act of 2009 prohibits paddy transplantation before ...

The brutal rape and eventual death in Delhi has raised the cry for the death penalty for the perpetrators of the crime. That reminded me of a talk show long back where a member of a women’s organization spoke against the death penalty for rapists. Her reasoning made perfect sense back then. And it makes sense today as well. So it would be good to revisit that angle with a cooler mind. So what was her reason? She pointed out that once you put death penalty on the table, judges would become even more demanding when it comes to rape cases. That in turn would reduce the conviction rate even further than the pathetic level today. To which I would a few more reasons: -          There would be an endless appeals process: And if we get another president like Pratibha Patel, the appeal would never get handled one way or the other, and no death penalty would ever get executed. -          As a country, we a...