Bruce Colville, well-known American writer of children’s books, said, “Withholding information is the essence of tyranny, control of the flow of information is the tool of dictatorship.” It will be democratically incorrect to be associated with tyranny and dictatorship. Our government offices are abuzz with tête-à-tête about the Right to Information (RTI) Ac
There is a tiny division in the massive Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the US. Its size doesn`t denote its importance, or the flurry of activity that’s besieged it recently. The unit, called the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) office, is mandated by Congressional law to map, document and track all unmanned aerial vehicle flying in American airspace by September 2015. The fl
Any kind of growth cannot be sustainable until it is inclusive, that is to say, every section of the society is prospering. It was with this realisation that the concept of financial inclusion (FI) dawned in India. FI is often misunderstood to be limited to banking but it is much more than that. To begin with, it is about reaching out to every household with three banking services &nda
In the early eighties, after completing my post-graduation, I was looking for a job. Journalism was not one of them till I fell in love with a newspaper called The Telegraph published from Calcutta (it was not Kolkata then). Under the stewardship of its dynamic young editor MJ Akbar, The Telegraph was certainly out of the ordinary. Unlike the Delhi-based national newspapers that used to practis
Those who instigate riots know the rule to be `fireproofed`—and to thrive on dangerous fundamentals. Beyond such calculated moves, the sufferers and their humane observers live in oblivion. Quite often, we see the frail silent image of Manto hanging on wall and his literatures meeting disdained responses, likewise as: I`ll fly all from here--not to listen, these are at service, always at
A friend of mine has sent me a one liner. India’s choices for the elections are between a bluffer, a duffer and a muffler. It isn’t very funny, but it is tragically valid. In a nation of 1.2 billion people we have no men and women of stature, people who can walk tall and make you admire them. Instead, it is all clay feet and straw. Ever since Jawaharlal Nehru talked about &
Let`s analyse the elections, I told Tuki. Yeah, let`s analazyzize, she shot back, pumping her fist in the `cholbe na cholbe na` fashion that is so unfashionable these days. So we decided to do what we are best at: we began analysing, complete with a bowl and scowl – a bowl of potato chips to give us that gravitas of analysing and decoding couch potatoes and a scowl on the respective foreh
i) Earlier it was "image", now it is "hope": Earlier, the elections were won on image of the party or the leader. So initially many royal families also used to win elections. Now what sells in the electoral space is the hope. India predominantly is a Hindu country as far as the “way of life” definition of Hinduism holds true. So the
Censorship in India has of late become too depressingly common to be surprising. The latest victim is an award-winning documentary film, No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, a portrayal of the last few months of the violent civil war in Sri Lanka. Last week, the Central Board of Film Certification declared it would not grant the film a certificate to allow it to
The introduction of Arundhati Roy’s ‘annotated’ version of Ambedkar’s The Annihilation of Caste, The Doctor and the Saint was published in this month’s Caravan magazine as the cover story. It is heartening to see Ambedkar being considered saleable enough by a leading publication. But how? Roy, even best produces a secondary understanding of the text written
Background In August 2010 the Government of India tabled a Bill in the Lok Sabha seeking approval for a legal framework whose objective is to protect persons making a disclosure about wrong doing in State agencies. Given India’s recent history of victimisation including murders of honest and upright public servants who dared to make a confidential disclosur
On the day the results of the Delhi election were announced, I wrote an article, Redefining Aam Aadmi (read it here), to mark the turning point in India’s political history. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had rapidly achieved remarkable results among Delhi citizens in promoting trust, solidarity, and hope a
The globalised world demands skilled manpower to convert growth opportunities into jobs and stable incomes. With millions of new job-seekers entering the job market every year, skill development has become one of India’s urgent priorities. The 12th Five Year Plan (FYP) has highlighted skill-building as an imperative need to reap India’s so-called demographic dividend. India
Batch after batch, in teaching corporate social responsibility at management institutes, I have egged students to debate the misplaced sense of social responsibility in the way government uses its oil companies in its efforts to balance cost impact on critical sectors and sections of the society. Against my hopes, every time, students have debated it just like our politicians who have kept the
I am ill-read. I don’t know a ‘good’ book from a ‘bad’ one. And but for the wife, who is far better read than I, the bookshelves at home would have been stacked with a Chekhov or a Dostoevsky or a Tagore next to Leon Uris or a Andrea Camilleri or a Satyajit Ray (not to say, for the life of me, that any of them are either good or bad). And then, perhaps, a copy or t
It is almost as if the next Indian elections are going to be based on Riot vs Riot. Like the 1984 riots linked to the Congress will be pitted against the BJP stigma of involvement in the Godhra riots of 2002 and the trading of insult will rise to a piercing crescendo. It is like my daddy is bigger than your daddy has become the leitmotif for the next power era. Now that the
Can a chief minister go on strike? Can he drive up to the federal government in an official car and publicly protest? What is happening in Delhi? Is this what Kejriwal meant by ‘sweeping’ clean? Is the man really going on strike because the police did not frisk four Ugandan women on the high handed orders of his law minister Somnath Bharti. Frisk, frisk, cavity sea
Does Arvind Kejriwal require security, and if yes, under which category from X to Z? That could well be a debate on media – of the social, traditional and 9 o’clock talk TV variety. But it becomes a bit of a glitch when politicians (both from government and the opposition) start dancing to the tune, almost ready to tap min SMS answers to some online poll, and even courts and
On July 21 last year, The Times of India wrote that entertainment channels can be fined up to Rs 30 lakh for violations of the programming code. "This move was formalised in a meeting of the IBF (Indian Broadcasting Foundation) board held on July 19. Any channel found violating the advisories or guidelines or repeatedly flouting the programme code can be fined to the tune of Rs 30
The newly-elected government of Delhi claims it is not political. On numerous occasions, leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have denied having anything to do with rajneeti; they claim they are here to serve the people and janta ki sewa is what they are going to do come what may. Yesterday, even after contesting on a reserved seat, Rakhi Birla, a dalit MLA from the party,
