With the Bihar elections round the corner, there is animated debate about its probable outcome. These elections will be an acid test for the leadership of the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U), and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Nitish Kumar, the leader of JD(U), faces multiple problems of anti-incumbency, credibility, organisational acumen and leadership after ruling for 10 years. While Lalu Prasa
Haryana is defending its law that bars illiterates and school dropouts from contesting panchayat elections. While the state government is trumpeting the law as a means to guarantee an ‘educated’ leadership to ensure good governance at the panchayat level, the law raises fears of aggravating the challenges inherent to Indian democracy. At a time when reservation is sti
The picture of cracked and burnt-out feet, with a missing toe, on the cover of Harsh Mander’s new book ‘Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice in New India’, does one thing convincingly: it mocks the ‘invisible hand’. Radha, a girl probably
Undeniably, Gandhi had a moral force unparalleled in recent times. For comparable examples of moral greatness, people often go back by centuries – to Jesus Christ and similar names. The crucial difference, however, is that nearly all great religious figures and spiritual teachers come with some supernatural element; grace from above and so on, which granted them enlightenment. They were n
The memories of the day are still intact in my mind when my brother Subhash sacrificed his savings to pay my school fees. Instead of buying shoes, he wore casual slippers in the scorching summer heat. Whenever I saw him in his slippers, it would remind me of his sacrifice he made for my studies. This was when I had decided not to let his sacrifice go in vain. Sometimes I used to ponder over our
Sixty-seven years ago when the drafting committee led by Dr BR Ambedkar suo motu introduced the phrase ‘other backward class’ (OBC) in the constitution, questions were raised as to who would be grouped in these classes. While Dr Ambedkar convinced the constituent assembly members that the decision be best left to the discretion of governments in future, the Patel-like agitations for
Old computers, mobile phones, refrigerators, television sets, all need to be discarded at some point. The end-of-life of such products needs proper waste management system. This is important since such devices contain over 50 types of hazardous materials. These include heavy metals like lead, cadmium, mercury and toxic chemicals like poly chlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and brominated flame retarda
In the midst of the 2014 election campaign, a ‘new’ information was being widely circulated on social media: the ancestors of the first Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, were Muslims. According to this ‘revelation’, Nehru was the great-grandson of one Ghiyasuddin Ghazi who apparently took a Hindu name during the 1857 uprising to save his life. It was a clear attem
With death sentence becoming an exception, there may be an urgent need to revisit the scheme of punishments to keep deterrence intact, as the next most stringent sentence of life imprisonment generally gets reduced after remission to a jail-term of mere 14 years or a little more.
The big cogs in the Digital India juggernaut have started to move. As a great first step, 100 smart cities have been identified. For the number enthusiasts, the five states with the largest number of future smart cities would be Uttar Pradesh at 13, Tamil Nadu (12), Maharashtra (10), Madhya Pradesh (seven) and Karnataka and Gujarat at six each. And yes, as one would already know, each state and
Tragedies make for great stories and they can hardly escape drama. Greek philosopher Aristotle while revealing the defining elements of a tragedy said that tragedies should be “expressed in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear”. When tragedies are punctuated with sub-plots, where people are killed by their own families and that t
In 1974, engineering students in Ahmedabad protested a mess fee hike. They came out on streets, and they started receiving widespread support – against the backdrop of runaway inflation and an allegedly corrupt state government of Chimanbhai Patel. In no time, the protests snowballed into a statewide agitation, called Navnirman Andolan, which Wikipedia claims to be the only protest of its
Increasingly governments worldwide as well as in India are focused on providing citizen services and safety in the most seamless manner that can assist in development. The other name to this can be given as smart cities. An important aspect however remains the reach and coverage of government systems to the masses. While in the past, physical limitations (number of personnel or
The question of economic inequality was always a pressing one, but last year it threw up an unlikely best-seller, Capital by Thomas Piketty. Before and after Piketty, there has been a growing body of literature on the theme (a long list can be found at: inequality.org/books-inequality), including Joseph Stiglitz’s Price of Inequality and Angus Deaton’s The Great Escape for non-exper
Service tax is a tax levied on providers of certain service transactions (excluding specified exempted categories). Service providers pay the tax and recover it from customers. It is charged to individual service providers on cash basis, and to companies on accrual basis. This tax is payable only when the value of services provided in a financial year exceeds `10 lakh. As has been mentioned in
A short tract by Michael Walzer, a leading political theorist better known for his masterpiece ‘Just and Unjust Wars’, should be of interest to the Indian readership. The American public intellectual poses the question that has become all the more relevant lately: How do we explain the shift from the values and ideals that won India independence to a different set of ideals that too
As I leaf through ‘Nature Without Borders’, I am reminded of my visit to the Velavadar national park in Gujarat a few years ago. For a small national park of only 29 sq km, Velavadar packs a punch. It harbours the endemic blackbuck, the endangered Indian wolf; is the largest roosting sight for Montagu’s harrier in the world and the finest place to see one of the rarest –
The pre-1993 executive-led system of appointment of judges lost favour with people for trampling upon judicial independence. The post-1993 judiciary-led collegium system faced criticism for lack of transparency and accountability. The trust deficit continues to be a challenge with the new system under the national judicial appointments commission (NJAC) raising fears on both counts.
Do we in India have the concept of privacy? The supreme court is hearing a bunch of petitions that have objected to Aadhaar because it infringes on citizens’ privacy. The government has said ‘right to privacy’ is not a fundamental right. It does not figure in the constitution, of course, even if the apex court has read ‘right to privacy’ as part of the all-importan
India’s malnutrition is back in international news, and for rather intriguing reasons. Some nasty articles have appeared in one of the most prestigious international magazines, the Economist – ‘Sparing Mr Modi’s blushes’, in the June 27 edition, and ‘Of secrecy and stunting’, in the July 4 edition. Regardless of its pretentions, the Economist appears to
