Indian newspapers are sold at cheaper than cost, subsidised by ad revenue, and have enormous circulations; the most successful titles and the newer media are mostly owned by a few mega-groups as an instrument of policy. And journalism is open only to a tiny, mostly English-speaking elite.

Postcolonial theory presents itself not just as a criticism of the radical Enlightenment tradition, but its replacement. But some key concepts its theorists reject are legitimate, and essential for progressive politics; they have recently re-emerged in global organisation against austerity.

Larry Summers has committed financial heresy, telling the IMF the whole system may be trapped in long-term, low economic growth, with bubbles the sole, temporary, remedy for unemployment. And President Obama has made inequality a major theme in his latest state of the union address.