Whereas the United States’ foreign policy is straight forward in projecting ‘exporting democracy’ as one of its primary objectives, India has always been cautious about not getting clubbed into the democracy-crusader category. India’s greatest post-independence achievement has been in setting up a vibrant democratic structure with a functional parliament and regular elec
I felt proud when I attended a consultative meeting on the framework for citizen engagement on NeGP at the department of information technology (DIT) this week – not because I contributed to the meeting but because I chanced to meet a government officer who is committed to transparency and is laying a strong foundation in the system for it. During the meeting discuss
The corporate sector around the world is debating whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a concept needs a replacement. The draft National voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economical (NVGs) Responsibilities of Business, under consideration with the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) provide a comprehensive answer. These guidelines, which seek to replace the 200
Has India arrived as a superpower? There are enough indicators to suggest that we are no better than any (other) third-world country on several parameters ranging from corruption to malnutrition. However, here is one robust indicator of our superpower ambitions: Environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s suggestion to metals and minerals firms that instead of spoiling our pristine forests, they
You are certain that a government is drifting when it actually thinks the drift is a mere public perception that can be countered through media campaigns. The prime minister’s decision to set up a GoM for better PR of the government is a fine example of this. We are told that home minister P Chidambaram will head it and the members would include Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Aza
Six months after environment minister Jairam Ramesh launched a diatribe against those who drive diesel-powered sports utility vehicles (SUVs), a planning commission committee has backed his call for higher taxes. "We have suggested that there should be higher tax on diesel and diesel-run SUVs," Kirit Parikh, head of the government-appointed panel has said. The suggestion is misdirecte
We were in Deval, a small town in Uttarakhand located picturesquely amid forests of blue pine at the confluence of the river Kail with the Pindar. Originating from the Pindari glacier, which is a popular trekker destination, the river Pindar forms a distinctive 115 km long valley of its own before it merges with the Alaknanda at Karnaprayag. Our reason for being in Deval was, to
Pinki, a young girl studying in a government school in Uttarakhand, came to Delhi to speak to the media about the condition of schools in her village. This class ninth student in a press conference organised by World Vision India said, “I feel sorry to see the state of education there." At the press meet, there were many other schoolchildren from different parts of the
The 10-day strike of Air India finally came to an end on Friday and the maharaja has limped back to normalcy but I disagree with news reports that say that the striking pilots emerged victorious in the overall drama. I see the whole issue through a different lens. The pilots may have resumed work but the question remains: what did the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA),
Under pressure for permitting projects in violation of environment and forest laws, minister Jairam Ramesh played the victim the other day. He said: “I am completely against regularising an illegality. But sometimes I am forced to. A steel plant has been built or a power project has been constructed… violations are detected afterwards. I cannot shut them down. Hundre
Manohar the chaiwallah has been grounded, literally. His kiosk is gone. Now, he sits on the road - two steps from the spot where he used to have his kiosk in Noida’s Film City, the home to many national TV channels. He sells cigarettes, gutkha and namkeen. The 2x2 feet space on the road is too less to make tea, Maggi noodles and bread-omelette selling which used to form the major share of
The message on my phone was clear and unambiguous, almost poetic although clarity is not necessarily a must-have for poetry. “The government of India is providing every resident of India a free unique identification number – Aadhaar. Please call (and there was a telephone number here) for enrolment details in your area.” Two things struck me immediately. The use of the word &l
In the previous column, I wrote about techpedia.in, a portal of tech projects by students which brings together industry, grassroots innovators and the youth, and promotes collaborative research. If various technical universities continue to take interest as is evident now, it won’t be difficult to imagine that such a platform may have more than a million projects and ideas in a few years
Fresh after paying a penalty with afterthoughts amok, it was not long before I realised my senses` improved ability to appreciate the colour "green". It all happened in the newsroom. And who else could take a journalist to task in his own den, except the editor? My editor made me pay a Rs 100 fine for leaving my computer switched on the previous evening after I had called it a
In getting to where it is today, Facebook has been attacked by many, from the Winklevi to its own former CFO. But, for the last one year, it has been battling Greenpeace, the environmental watchdog. The global green NGO has taken Facebook to task as the engineering powering the social networking site uses thermal power of coal-origin. In April, a record 70,000 comments hit Facebook afte
According to a World Bank study, 35 percent of e-governance projects are total failures, 50 percent are partial failure and only 15 percent have achieved success. Experts, for long, have stated that most project failures are routed in improper project development. This was the reason that the government of India and state governments engaged top consulting organizations to conceptualise e-gover
No love at first sight in Delhi University (DU) will be shown in Hindi movies from now on. The scene in which the boy meets the girl has to be reworked because DU will not be issuing pre-admission forms for undergraduate colleges from this year. So, now, scenes of the heroine perspiring under a blazing sun and is almost about to faint or is being eve-teased by a boy while standing in a
Talk to Pakistan, we must. We are neighbours, after all. We are the bigger nation, in any case. We have our own Muslim population to take into account, as Digvijay Singh seldom lets us forget. So we must not let occasional, even frequent, acts of aggression from the other side shake our resolve to talk. We can always make a distinction, can’t we, between Pakistani
Tomorrow, on May 5, something unprecedented is happening in the UK. For the British citizens, it is their chance to vote in a referendum on the voting system used to elect MPs to the House of Commons. The question is straight and simple: "At present, the UK uses the `first past the post` system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the `alternative vote` system be used instead?"
If one wants to learn how not to run a company, Air India makes the best case study. Government, effete bureaucracy and the spineless management at the top have missed out on no opportunity to feast on the national carrier. The rust covering all the departments of the national carrier has crippled the Maharaja. In 2009, the merger of the erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India was
