Uttar Pradesh has been advised by Niti Aayog to trim its bureaucracy to streamline functioning and boost efficiency, a civil service reform initiative that needs to be urgently undertaken across the country. The Ni
Just as farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and elsewhere were gathering for violent protests to press their demands, the chief economic advisor to the government of India, Arvind Subramanian, delivered a lecture on agricultural economy which
Anand Neelakantan is known for his style of counter-telling Indian mythology. His first three books followed the counter-telling style, and narrated stories of mythological villains like Ravana and Duryodhana. With his recent book The Rise of
Internet users will grow to 829 million in 2021, up from 373 million in 2016, said a Cisco report that was released on Friday. In its visual networking index (VNI) forecast, Cisco said that there will be two billion networked devic
Close to two years have gone by but the Uttar Pradesh government is yet to implement the Allahabad high court’s order to make it compulsory for government officers, people’s representatives and judges to send their kids to government-r
Just as farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and elsewhere were gathering for violent protests to press their demands, the chief economic advisor to the government of India, Arvind Subramanian, delivered a lecture on agricultural economy which
It’s five in the morning in Kolkata. The morning calm hasn’t yet been broken. The tea stalls have a steady stream of visitors enjoying their hot cuppa. The chirping of the birds and the cool breeze after heavy showers have turned
Given prime minister Narendra Modi`s penchant for social media, every ministry and department has focused on Twitter, Facebook et al to reach out to the voter, and so has the agriculture ministry, but the protesting farmers don`t seem to be aware
Farmers in several parts of the country are on the warpath. Under stress, they are demanding more support from the government, especially higher MSPs and a loan waiver. But after a year of normal monsoon, and ahead of another normal spell, how c
Tobacco users have gone down by 81 lakhs and youth consuming tobacco has also seen a marked decrease, said union health minister JP Nadda at the National Consultation on Accelerating Implementation of WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Cont
Momos are cute little dumplings that are quite filling. So, why on earth would anybody want to banish momos from our plates? A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA in Jammu and Kashmir wants a ban on momos. And the poor momos fault,
The Narendra Modi government seems to have shifted its focus from 2019 and is now looking beyond it. Some of the initiatives are now aligned to be completed by 2022. One need not read too much into the 2022 goal, s
The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday kept the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 6.25 percent and the Monetary Policy Committee noted that incoming data suggest that the “transitory effects of dem
The killing of six farmers in police firing in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district shows a breakdown in governance and complete lack of empathy towards agriculturists by the BJP that has been in power in the state for three consecutive term
“Hello, hello. Can you hear me now,” shouted a man as he waved his mobile phone in the air, hoping to catch the elusive signal. It didn’t work. He gave a forlorn look at his mobile phone. That loo
In Lalheri village in Punjab’s Ludhiana district, groups of men and women from Hambran, Sidhwan, Ghalib, Manewal, Lubnagarh, Arain and other nearby villages have gathered in a hotel and occupy the seats in a hall for public dialogue. They ar
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy’s new novel in two decades, reads like non-fiction at time – in a welcome sense, in a non-post-truth kind of way. Its characters have been painstakingly picked for their knack
Air India is gasping for breath and we need to stop pumping in taxpayers’ money to keep the national carrier afloat. Turnaround efforts have come a cropper and each time an Air India flight takes off, it burns good money that could have been
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has proposed an equity dividend of 79% (including 40% interim dividend paid earlier) for 2016-17 fiscal. This is four times of the dividend paid in the previous year and also
Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) Limited, a Navratna enterprise, focused on financing power projects, has said that its total income for 2016-17 fiscal has risen to Rs 24,096 crore as against Rs 23,757 crore in the previous fiscal.
