WHEN a patient enters a hospital, the standard rules of commerce break down completely. Lying on a stretcher, an anxious patient has neither the time to price-shop nor the bargaining power to negotiate. They accept an extraordinary degree of uncertainty, trusting that the care recommended is necessary and that the prices charged are fair. It is a profound breach of that trust when hospitals exploit this vulnerability for extortionate margins.

The success of the BRICS summit, the 7.8% GDP growth in the first quarter of this financial year, the elaborate enthusiasm with which PM Modi's 76th birthday was celebrated and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s retention of its posts in the Delhi University elections, although by much lower margins, cannot obscure the headwinds faced by the government and the Sangh Parivar in its saffronisation project.