Hyderabad, July 31 -- BY AJAY MALLAREDDY

Telangana's government wants you to imagine Hyderabad as the next Singapore: a city that never sleeps, open around the clock, alive with commerce past midnight. That vision is sold at investor summits and stamped across the "Telangana Rising" branding and the promise of a 24x7 city.

But what did the same government do to a man who tried to live in that promised city ahead of schedule? He ran a tiffin centre. He was booked for operating beyond permitted hours. A metropolitan magistrate at L.B. Nagar sentenced him to two days' simple imprisonment and a Rs.50 fine under the Hyderabad City Police Act. The police (under the Malkajgiri commissionerate) then posted his photograph beside a uniformed offi...