Study Kit

Justin Wolfers If the November election was intended as a rejection of elites, of expertise and of the sort of technocratic advice that economists often give, it’s a punch that has landed. In somber analyses, huddled hallway conversations and pointed asides during endless panel sessions at the annual conference of economists last weekend in Chicago, the major theme was a …

By Muhammad Ali Ehsan The 15th retired chief of Pakistan Army, General Raheel Sharif, is being tipped to take over as the military chief of the Saudi led 34-member military alliance of Muslim countries. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif confirmed the news by stating that, ‘this thing was in the pipeline for quite some time and that the Prime Minister was …

By Syed Mohammad Ali Waste management has become an issue of growing global concern as urban populations continue to increase and consumption patterns continue to rise. The health and environmental implications associated with unsafe garbage disposal are mounting, particularly in developing countries. Wastewater produced by domestic use, industrial processes and agricultural practices is a major problem when it comes to …

Summary The nuclear race between India and Pakistan is intensifying, thanks in large part to Islamabad’s fear that its military is starting to lag behind New Delhi’s. Over the past decade, Pakistan has become alarmed by the widening gap between its ability to wage conventional war and India’s. Pakistan has turned to its nuclear inventory to level the playing field. But …

The Global Economic Prospects 2017 report brought out by the World Bank has taken a very contrarian stand. Even as the Central Statistical Organisation and other indicators, including the lead indicators brought out by the OECD, point to a sharp deceleration in growth the World Bank reports says that growth in the Indian economy has bottomed out in 2016 with …

By Laurence Bergreen Illustrated. 519 pp. Simon & Schuster. $32.50. I have lived as a philosopher, and I die as a Christian.” These were, supposedly, the last words of Giacomo Casanova, the 18th century’s most infamous adventurer, trickster, gambler and libertine. It is just the sort of thing he would have said, for he was a master of self-justification. Defending …

By ADAM SHATZJAN When Barack Obama entered office, the hopes that he raised in his own country were exceeded only by the hopes he raised abroad. Mr. Obama tapped into those hopes with his inspirational rhetoric about a “transformational” presidency, and his promises were scarcely less dramatic. America would be steered back on track, working with other countries to meet …

Benjamin M. Friedman ON March 4, 1933, at the bottom of the worst financial and economic crisis to afflict the United States since the Civil War, Franklin D. Roosevelt took office as president. Two days later, Roosevelt acted to stanch the collapse by suspending gold payments, imposing a four-day “bank holiday” and arranging emergency assistance for banks when they reopened. …

A.G. Noorani OVER 30 years ago, prime minister Indira Gandhi called off talks with Pakistan on a no-war pact because Pakistan’s representative to the UN Human Rights Commission, Agha Hilaly, had compared Indian Kashmir with Palestine. That was before the eruption of militancy in the former in 1989. Since then, the parallel has become even more apt. In both places, …

ISLAMABAD: Due to the scarcity of water and climate change, desertification of land is increasing across the country each year and the level of underground water is also dropping. Various stakeholders on Friday gathered at the Ministry of Climate Change to devise a strategy to stop desertification and make barren land fertile. Desertification is the process by which fertile land …