Madam Chief Minister, Your concern about the rising number of private vehicles and people’s disinterest in opting for public conveyance is praiseworthy. You say that there are very few takers of public transport despite the introduction of battery-operated cars and bikes. Your insistence on going green by curbing consumption of petroleum-based fuel at the Delhi sustainable develop
The supreme court judgment cancelling 2G licences, 122 in all, is no doubt historic. But the learned judges may have unwittingly impacted the telecom industry and our economy in more ways than they intended. This column is about that part of the story. The judgment is not yet available and thus reliance has been placed on reports published relating to the ruling.
French fighter aircraft maker Dassault Aviation landing an Indian air force contract for its Rafale jets has raised many an eyebrow. The company outbid the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) consortium which was pitching its Eurofighter jet to India. Till the last minute, it had seemed that the latter was the favourite but it is learned now that it placed a quote higher than t
December brings with it the end of the year, a welcome chill in the air and the Christmas vacations. So, last December vacation, off I went to explore India’s largest biosphere reserve with my family. After a four and half hours’ bus journey, most of which I spent dozing, we reached Gotkhali. There we boarded a steamer which took us through the Pitchkhali river to our destination &m
National Water Policies are extremely important legal and institutional tools as they reflect the basic intent and direction that the government is planning to take regarding water resources. To ensure that this is a direction acceptable and beneficial to all, open public consultations need to be the backbones of such policies. Thus looking at the immense importance of water to society & en
A government school teacher in Madhya Pradesh`s Betul district got drunk in front of his students and, behind the closed doors of a classroom, ordered girls as young as seven to dance for him — and the caned them for "not dancing properly". All on Republic Day. The man had sent a class V student to fetch liquor from a shop half-a-mile away. He was put under suspension on
The Gujarat Lokayukta ruling has left constitutional mandate to respect federalism, rights of a popularly elected government and scope of governors’ duties and rights at crossroads in the face of interpretation of the provisions of the Gujarat Lokayukta law. The Gujarat high court ruling also means the institution of Lokayukta is more isolated than ever, also increasing th
Sixty-four years ago on this day, on 30 January 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. India has several statues, universities and roads named after the Mahatma. Almost every city in India has a Gandhi statue. Mahatma Gandhi roads are found in many cities. Mahatma Gandhi Setu is a bridge over the Ganga connecting Patna and Hajipur, 5.575 km long and was considered the longest bridge in India un
[After sending this column, our columnist said, "I hope at least one reader will change his or her habits (after reading this)." We would be happy to hear from you if this column lead you to reflect on your behaviour.] The recent 28th shodhyatra in Mizoram has been quiet cathartic for me personally. I had been aware of the need to conserve water and proper practices w
In a democracy, where elections matter, negative campaigns add a tangy twist to the atmosphere. That’s what has been seen in primaries of the US presidential elections and five state assembly elections in India. However, comparing both would be like comparing apples and oranges. In the runup to the Uttar Pradesh election, the issue of Uma Bharti being an outsider is being raised i
If his guns go blazing the way they are now, justice Katju has the potential to soon force the editors to create a new reporting beat exclusively for his comments which are so regular and riotous. Right now, the media is not taking him as seriously as the other way round. There is so much of warmth, a sense of caregiving, an overseeing benign eye when he tells media persons, “You have los
The unique identity (UID) initiative seems to be the latest causality of a turf war between the finance ministry headed by Pranab Mukherjee and the home ministry headed by P Chidambaram. The discomfort between the two senior Congress ministers was evident in many cases whether it was the reported bugging of the finance minister’s office or the finance ministry note to the
Taking a cue from the Supreme Court’s lessons to the taxman on basic principles like jurisdiction, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee called Law Minister Salman Kursheed within minutes to take his own lessons on basic principles of law. If only the government ran refresher courses on such elementary issues, the economy would have been rated a few notches higher by Moody’s for o
The man responsible for inquiring against top public functionaries in the national capital territory (NCT) of Delhi hasn’t been given the elbow room to decide whether he can have a new sweeper in his office. For more than two years, Justice Manmohan Sarin, the NCT Lokayukta, has suffered two sweepers given to him on lien by the state government he is supposed to rap. The s
Pardon me for my long-windedness. But we have to get this straight. When a smart young stalker got hold of Angelina Jolie’s mobile number and started bombarding her with text messages and obscene calls from random numbers, cyber experts from the Los Angeles police department (LAPD) had to step in. After around a month they caught him. A criminal case was filed in the Los Angeles superior
Pratham’s report on the state of education in rural India is both predictable and shocking. Predictable because it repeats the same set of findings year-after-year – (a) school enrollment remains over 90 percent but (b) quality of learning, both reading and mathematical abilities, continues to be pathetically low and declining, (c) attendance of students and teachers als
When I visited a youth resource centre run by an NGO in Trilokpuri in east Delhi a few months ago, I saw many children from nearby localities attending free Math and English tuition classes. These children studied at government schools in the area. Their families were poor and therefore could not afford the English-medium private schools. Thirteen-year-old Leela explained the situation
When Harvinder Singh delivered a tight slap right across Sharad Pawar’s face, the resounding echo elicited reactions from all strata of society and political parties. While a slap may not be an accepted form of protest, it did indicate the level of frustration felt by the Indian middle class at an increasingly unresponsive political system. The violence of the action came in for justifiab
Look at the national scene unfolding before your eyes and you are sure to be submerged by a spate of negativity: high inflation, plummeting rupee, general economic decline, government in limbo, policy paralysis, corruption and most other ills associated with a flailing state. There are endless debates – in print, on television, in private parties and also on public platforms – on ea
Case: A newspaper reader’s plaint — early morning confusion. Court: Of justice Katju, the press council of India chief. Complainant: The argumentative Indian. Your Honour, I’ll begin with a word of praise for the chair. I have become a sincere newspaper reader ever since you to
