With evening news on TV slowly taking over from the newspapers in setting the agenda for much of political discourse — heck, much of the monsoon session of Parliament was conducted in television studios, so to speak — eloquence has attained more import than ideology or grassroots. At least in days other than those when a political rally is planned. More so for the Con
Maybe, just like a blade-thin sliver of faint light but the Anna Hazare effect is visible on the political leadership. They are not taking charges of corruption lightly anymore. When Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy raised questions over acquisition of company that published the now defunct National Herald newspaper to which the Congress reportedly gave a loan of over Rs 90 crore, the Bhara
There is a new and ever-increasing buzz about economic reforms. The business community is excited, stock markets are ecstatic, and economists are elated with the government’s recent decisions to allow FDI in multi-brand retail and pension, and hike it in insurance. In a recent interview to the Economic Times, finance minister P Chidambaram said that these decisions, including the hike in
“Irresponsible allegations made by the IAC at the behest of vested interests without basic understanding of the complexities of a project of this nature do not merit a response,” said Reliance Industries Limited tersely on the latest expose of India Against Corruption’s Arvind Kejriwal. Kinda true. On another edgy Wednesday when political leaders were glued to TV sets (thanks
Much has been written about India’s emerging status as a rising power, a fast-growing economy and its huge market. Much has also been written about the stark realities of poor economic conditions of those at the bottom of the social ladder, the rural-urban divide, malnutrition, economic inequality and corruption in politics and even everyday life. Yet, one may ask: what is that makes &nda
To be fair to arch-rivals Hindu, only six out of seven in Manmohan Singh’s new-look council of ministers completed their degree at St Stephen’s. Jyotiraditya, the seventh, is reported to have procured admission in BA Programme, but he soon got through his undergraduate admission at Harvard, before going on to Stanford for an MBA.
Two sons-in-law! Two eras! Two entirely diverse results! By the mid 1950s, Feroze Gandhi, the son-in-law of the then prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was at the forefront to fight corruption in government. In 1956, he along with several others led the campaign to nationalise 245 private insurance companies, which were riddled with frauds, and consolidate them under the newly formed, st
I did make an honest attempt, but let me confess with that frankness for which I am known from one end of my table to a point close to the same end that I failed. Obscure tomes by monks from the Dark Ages I read and enjoy without the help of students’ guides of that era. But this, the US government’s report about reports about reports, prepared by its accounting office, stumped me.
He is dismissed every Thursday only to be awaited with bated breath the next Wednesday. Toast of the masses, darling of the media, this swashbuckling newest kid of politics is apparently also the fiercest of them all. With India Against Corruption’s Arvind Kejriwal taking the centre stage in politics, rules of the game are being considered for a revision by the old guard. Kejriwal
To fight corruption at the lower levels and eliminate role of middlemen the central government has introduced the unique identity number, Aadhar, in the delivery of social security services and subsidy – which, according to an estimate, accounts for Rs4 lakh crore annually. Aadhar, the “magic number”, has been endorsed by the topmost functionaries of the government as citizens
An uncle recently showed me the first currency note from the first salary he earned over half a century ago. It is no longer legal tender, of course, but its value for my uncle is way beyond anything monetary. He will not give it away for money or love. My hope of being remembered in his will received a severe setback when I told him it was a silly thing to do. There is no great sanctity to the
The spectacular growth of the economy during the last decade has changed the entire landscape of the transport sector in India, particularly the road and the air sectors. The considerable increase in disposable incomes has changed the profile of consumers as well as of service providers beyond recognition. While roads are teeming with cars of all sizes and brands, airports have become as crowde
Years ago when I was taught first in school about rapeseed, my friends and I were blushing and in splits. After the class we wondered and laughed for hours discussing how this seed of rape could spread crime in our society. The joke is back – in nothing-but-funny theories our political masters have been propounding of rape of late. Seems like failure to curb the crime has driven them to i
In Kolkata, that well-known doctor, Mamata Banerjee, has staked a claim for immortality by her latest medical discovery: dengue is caused by dieting. Fat ladies and overweight men are presumably immune; on the other hand if they do succumb to dengue it is because the virus has not read Dr Mamata Banerjee’s latest paper on the subject. Across the country, in Gujarat, the chief minister the
In the mid-1970s and a large part of the 1980s, a pitched intellectual and academic battle raged between legendary political scientist CP Bhambri and iconic sociologist Rajni Kothari on the structure, composition and character of the Indian State. A parallel and interesting skirmish erupted between the two giants when Kothari said that poverty is relative. Bhambri was of the strong view that po
The extreme of hatred is hallucinatory. In losing the prism of reason, we risk being capricious. Blinkered thus, we cannot tell black from white in a world which is largely grey. I will cite four examples to elucidate how we are failing to appreciate that innovation and innovation alone sets a leader apart from followers. The road is a teacher Indian road
The Prime Minister appeared concerned with the environment of cynicism in the country on the issue of corruption when he addressed the Anti-Corruption investigators at a conference in Delhi yesterday. He analyzed the present situation as ‘a mindless environment of negativism’ being created in the country which is obviously not healthy for any parliamentary de
The past decade has seen a unique exploration of Mahatma Gandhi’s life. If Sudhir Kakar wrote an imaginative novel on Mira and the Mahatma unraveling various aspects of Gandhi’s psychology, the Mahatma’s grandsons Rajmohan Gandhi and Gopalkrishna Gandhi explored his personality by writing a biography and compiling an anthology respectively to throw light on hitherto untouched
The content available on the internet encompasses the world; even a phrase such as “rum bum tum” which carries no meaning for a person with average intelligence presents 647,000 results in 0.35 seconds on Google search. Did you say, “Ting xing bing?” Roll your eyes; 5,490,000 results in 0.25 seconds. The Indian internet user has matured and has moved on to use mo
New Year resolutions are no longer about giving up smoking or being kind to strangers. It is about spending less time on the internet. Recently I met a friend who spends so much time on the net that he has no time for his real job. “I think I must get myself one of those things,” he said, “You know, that app... I can’t remember the name... I’ll have to look it up o
