• The real problem with the Union Budgets is not taxes, but poor returns on government investments, writes TN Ninan in the Business Standard. The Modi government needs to launch a privatisation programme to fix this.
  • With 20 cross-border firing deaths in 2018 already, Arun Sharma, writing in the Indian Express, travels along the Jammu and Kashmir International Border and the Line of Control to tell of life in this zone of conflict.
  • From food stalls that pop up late at night to a breakfast of champions, the best food in Indore is to be had on the streets, writes Shirin Mehrotra in the Mint.
  • In the Hindu Business Line, Janice Pariat writes about reclaiming her mother tongue, Khasi.
  • Writing for Bloomberg, Michael Lewis goes to Washington in search of United States President Donald Trump and winds up watching the State of the Union speech with Steve Bannon.
  • The Vatican seems desperate to beat Protestantism in the race for Chinese souls. But can it convince the population that it’s not a “cult”? Caroline Kitchener  exploresthe question in the Atlantic.
  • In Vulture, American music legend Quincy Jones speaks to David Marchese about Michael Jackson, his relationship with the Trumps, and the problem with modern pop.
  • Born in 1842, here’s what American psychologist William Jones got right about consciousness 150 years ago, writes Micheal Gazzaniga in Nautilus.
  • Surveillance Valley: Why are internet companies like Google in bed with cops and spies, asks Yasha Levine in the Baffler.
  • In Cabinet, Christopher Turner writes about the time when Hollywood dabbled with using the sensation of smell in its movies.
  • At the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, in Pyeongchang, as at every modern Olympics since 1896, the science of timekeeping will play a central role, writes Alan Burdick in the New Yorker.

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