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Foundation stone laid for civil enclave at Darbhanga airport

Union minister of commerce and industry and civil aviation Suresh Prabhu and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar laid foundation stone for the development of civil enclave at Darbhanga airport.   Darbhanga airport belongs

BHEL to build Rs 3,500 crore supercritical thermal power plant in West Bengal

BHEL has secured a major order for developing a 660 MW supercritical thermal power plant in West Bengal.

A maker and marker of development

The fifth edition of the Global Nutrition Report was released in Bangkok, Thailand, on November 29, 2018 during the event titled ‘Accelerating the end of hunger and malnutrition’, which saw participation from key decision-makers, resea

Why not have nationwide prohibition?

 What would be the one thing you would do if you are prime minister for the time it takes to throw a lemon up in the air and catch it? Mahatma Gandhi’s answer, the anecdote goes, was that he’d ban alcohol. The notion of the whole

Why not allow people to propose laws?

Democracy is people’s own rule, but the billion-plus people of India cannot gather in one place to frame laws. So we elect representatives who, theoretically speaking, draft laws on our behalf. In practice, much can get lost in translation.

Why not have only public healthcare, education?

It happens in the US, UK and many other developed countries, then why not in India? The word ‘sarkari’ is scary enough for the Indian middle class, leave alone the elite. Even as the admission season approaches there are kilometre-long

LPG gas prices reduced by Rs 120.50 per cylinder

The government has reduced the price of non-subsidised LPG gas in Delhi by Rs 120.50 per cylinder from January 1, 2019.   The price reduction has been attributed to plummeting prices of LPG in global market and strengthe

Why not have regional benches of SC?

It will kill two birds with one stone. Or rather three. It will not only reduce the number of pending cases with the apex court, which is 57,987 as of June 2018, but will also provide litigants from the southern, eastern and western parts of the c

Why not make rich farmers pay tax?

Before Narendra Modi replied with the now-famous greeting of “Puducherry ko Vanakkam”, a BJP worker was telling him in a party-organised video conference that the government was “only busy collecting tax in all manner and in all

The why not game

A few years ago, we could have suggested, why not do away with `1,000 notes. We could have also suggested that the planning commission is anyway founded on an executive fiat and can be done away with another since it does not serve any logical pur

Indian Railways 2018: Major achievements and challenges

 At a time when Indian Railways claims that it has achieved many milestones in 2018, there are numerous areas where the national transporter needs to turn its focus and improve its services. The railways say that it not only unveile

On the edge of the sickle

Farmers have at last forced the nation to sit up and take notice of what they are enduring. They marched to Delhi to protest. Then the assembly elections happened, and the defeat of the ruling BJP in three of its bastions – Rajasthan, Madh

Quit, or patch up!

Should  e-cigarettes, nicotine patches, other nicotine-replacement therapies, and heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco products be encouraged? Are they less harmful than smoking and traditional ways of taking tobacco? The current tobacco debate, as

AAI sets a new benchmark in reducing carbon footprint

 Airports Authority of India (AAI) has said it is consistently working on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. By implementing cost effective carbon mitigation action to conserve environment and reduce its adverse impact on the societ

Seven PSUs to be listed on stock exchange

 The Centre on Friday has given its go ahead to list seven central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) on the stock exchange through initial public offering (IPO) and further public offer (FPO).   The PSUs include Tel

Governance of the self

The Razor’s Edge, a 1944 novel by Somerset Maugham, explores the dichotomy between materialism and spirituality. The title is derived from a line of Katha Upanishad: “The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise s

A Harish Chandra parable gone wrong

The recent conviction of former coal secretary Harish Chandra Gupta and other officers by a CBI court in a case relation to allocation of a coal block in West Bengal has raised many questions relating to governance. The case arose from a CBI inves

The Rusting of the Steel Frame

The Steel Frame of the government machinery was forged by the Iron Man. The phrase that has come to describe the Indian bureaucracy was coined by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, when he addressed the first batch of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) pr

Why Naseeruddin Shah should be heard, his remarks debated

Naseeruddin Shah is not just a Bollywood star; he is a rarity – a thinking actor. His dialogues delivered with impeccable diction drive home the point without any element of melodrama. IN the same measured voice, he is often known for speaki

Free Wi-Fi at 715 railway stations

The Indian Railways’ ambitious plan of providing free Wi-Fi services has started showing results, as 715 out of 5,734 proposed stations have got the facility as on December 14. Minister of railways Piyush Goyal has been laying emphas





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