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Learning numbers

Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal is a man on the mission. Apart from bringing a change in the state of education, he also aims to increase enrolment of children in schools. And it seems it is already working. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2010, prepared by the NGO Pratham and published last week, shows an increase in school enrolment figures. But it also highlights

RTI: the challenge from within

The other day I was in the office of Delhi’s lieutenant governor (LG).  I was talking to an officer – one of the most honest and efficient in the current lot serving the Delhi government – about the loopholes in the administrative mechanism and the initiatives LG has taken to fix the same.  The focus of the talk shifted to the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Budget for the aam aadmi

Why is India not able to take care of its poor like most other countries who are neither great democracies nor economic powers or the military power that we boast of? The new economic policy of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation has done wonders for the moneyed class but for the vast majority of poor, now intended to be covered under

Alarming alacrity of Delhi Police

Delhi Police is on way to giving Scotland Yard a run for its money. Or, is it? At least, the alacrity with which it made an incident of road rage in which a café manager was crushed to death by a Jet Airways pilot on Tuesday – an open and shut case, makes it appear so. The pilot’s car ran over the victim as he drove away after a heated argument following over

Homeless truths

Recently, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit proposed a way to get homeless children off the streets. She had been on a visit to Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. The institute run by Achyutananda Samanta, an entrepreneur, houses over 12,000 homeless children from the state`s 30 districts. The children cook their own food, have been taught to stitch their own uniform

Sports grounded

When I was at school, evenings always meant playtime, at the community park playground. Only when there was a local football orcricket tournament were we kids shooed away from the grounds. Even then the colony`s bylanes or someone`s courtyard were a tailormade substitute. But today, many children, my seven-year-old niece included, stay indoors. There is a dearth of community space, play

Delicate doorway

Many a time I have been asked whether women are allowed in mosques and whether they can pray like their male counterparts. The fact is that there is no verse in the Holy Quran that prohibits women from praying in mosques. Neither is there any authentic Hadith (anecdotes of Prophet Muhammad) on the same. In fact, there are various Hadith which prove that Islam allows women to pra

Governing the commons

Pace of development in India is coming at a cost - to its forest and the people whose survival depends on it. These are people who live in the fringes of the society and the much-touted development has hardly touched their lives. And quite understandably they feel let down. As a result, they oppose the model of development which we celebrate. The indigenous people and the tribals are thus locke

No treating India`s sick healthcare?

China has proved it once more that it is always a step ahead of India. This time, the leap is in the healthcare sector. Recently, Chinese legislators were allowed to grill the ministers on issues of public hospitals’ reform and the session was made public through the Xinhua news agency. This was least expected of the communist China, which is facing problems in the healthcare not

Sarpanch by proxy

Trudging through the treacherous, pock-marked road winding amidst the majestic Aravalli ranges, our ramshackle Tata Sumo took about three hours to reach Madri, a picturesque village in the Tribal Udaipur district of Rajasthan. Setting out from Udaipur we had travelled to this far flung region to meet Jagdish Meena, the sarpanch of Madri panchayat of Jhdol block, 50 km from the city.

No hostel for young women?

Illegal working women hostel and paying guest accommodation have mushroomed in the city in the past few years. All thanks to the so-called strict policy and regulations of the authorised hostels for providing accommodation.   Take for instance, All India Women Conference (AIWC) hostel on Bhagwan Dass road. Out of the several policies they have one is that they don&rsqu

Leave me alone, please!

The Radia tapes has once again thrown open the debate on privacy. Ratan Tata has approached the Supreme Court seeking to protect his privacy but the subject is not new to India. The apex court has dealt with the issue of privacy and phone tapping in a number of cases. It has also given guidelines on phone tapping which have taken the form of rules under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.

If I were prime minister…

The curtains may have come down on year 2010 but it has not done any good to my sense of anguish and hopelessness as a citizen of India – India that apparently has become corrupt to the core. Year 2011 may have dawned but it has not helped my new found belief that my country has lost its conscience completely. Wait. It has nothing to do with the rise of the Rajas and the Radias. T

The menace of VIP convoys

Sitting here in Dubai I am stunned to hear that a person in New Delhi suffered a cardiac arrest and could not reach the hospital because they closed the roads for the PM’s cavalcade. Awesome. Technically, under any law of jurisprudence, the PM and his convoy are accessories before the fact and guilty of contributing to a death that may or may not have been avoided. Ergo, th

Explaining Arnab to my kid brother

“We will be back tomorrow with more direct questions,” the man signed off in his characteristic combative tone. “Bhai, how come we always see this man on this channel?” my 11-year-old cousin Soofiyan asked, “Are they short of people on their staff?”

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


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