On May 23 this year, the ministry of environment issued ‘Rules on prevention of cruelty to animals (regulation of livestock market)’ with the purported aim of regulating animal markets. When one reads the rules – notwithstanding the lame efforts from union ministers to issue clarifications – one is left with the feeling that these are drafted by overzealous persons with misplaced notions of what constitutes the welfare of livestock and livestock owners.

 

 

In May, when CBSE declared its results, government schools of Delhi left private schools behind for the second year in a row. This development assumes significance, especially, because the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has time and again highlighted its focus on the improvement of government schools. The government boasts of allocating the highest budget for education by any state government, which was 24 percent of the total outlay this year. With this step, the Delhi government’s education policy is being perceived as revolutionary.

 

 

Ramin Jahanbegloo is a renowned philosopher who is now associated with the Jindal Global University. His latest work, The Decline of Civilization, calls for countering the ‘decivilising’ tendencies of our times by returning to Gandhi and Tagore. Jahanbegloo answered some questions on this subject in an email interview with Governance Now.

Madhya Pradesh government’s concern and large-scale efforts for Narmada are salutary, and other states can learn a lesson or two from this campaign. India’s rivers need all the help. However, in case of the Narmada, the authorities first will have to mitigate a lot of harm they have caused to the river – primarily because of the Narmada Valley Development Project, a supremely ambitious multi-purpose initiative spanning decades to tame the river, divert its excess waters and harvest them for irrigation and power generation. The construction of more than 3,000 dams, including 30 large dams over the 1,310 km length of the river, has done irreparable harm to its eco-system, experts and environmentalists allege.

When India’s longest bridge, the 9.15-km Dhola-Sadiya over the Brahmaputra river, connecting Assam to Arunachal Pradesh, was inaugurated by prime minister Narendra Modi on May 26, China reacted angrily. As quoted by a news agency, China’s foreign ministry cautioned India to “exercise restraint” over building infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh, a region which it considers its own. Mandarins of South Block, which houses the ministry of external affairs, were however unruffled by China’s outburst.