Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has the image of a quiet and contented politician. Unlike several of his peers, he shuns rhetoric and yet makes his point cogently to his audience in Bihar. Having launched his campaign seeking to renew the mandate in the next assembly elections, Kumar has been harping on development and Bihari pride, themes that are alien to the state’s
Ram Dayal Munda, a member of the National Advisory Council (NAC), which was reconstituted recently, is acknowledged as the most prominent tribal academician and intellectual in his state. Born in 1939 at Diuri village in Ranchi district of Jharkhand, Munda has been a musician, anthropologist, linguist, development activist and, of late, politician as well. He obtained a Master&
Even though the government has tried unsuccessfully to pass a Microfinance Bill to provide a regulatory framework for the sector, so far no national policy on financial inclusion has been formulated like the UK government has. Don`t you think in the present times, when financial markets can so deeply affect the economy and the workers, financial inclusion should be a matter of public po
Intensifying Naxal violence has Gopal Krishna Pillai, the top-most bureaucrat in charge of law and order, on the hot seat. Every other major cause of unrest in the country – and there have been many – adds to his onerous job. In this interview with Sweta Ranjan, Pillai, the home secretary, talks about the centre’s strategy aga
It’s been five years since the centre launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and sought to change the way India developed and governed its cities. Some cities have availed of funds under this mission. But, as a recent nationwide survey of sanitation facilities across urban centres revealed, India is yet to have even a single clean, green city. In an intervie
Pawan Kumar Bansal, minister for water resources as well as for parliamentary affairs, is a seasoned parliamentarian. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha during 1984-90, he was elected to the Lok Sabha and now he is in his fourth term in the lower house. In an interview with Sweta Ranjan, he spoke candidly about issues relating to both the ministries he handles.
Financial sector stalwart and HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh speaks on bureaucracy, judiciary, lobbying and other issues. Excerpts from an interview: What makes Deepak Parekh the man at whom the government look up to in the time of crisis? There are many points of views always and there are differences of opinion. Ultimately decisions have to be taken in life
Jean Drèze is one of those development economists who have gone way beyond classrooms and seminars and helped shape policies. He has worked with Amartya Sen as well as served as a member of the previous National Advisory Council. Drèze shared his views on food security with Prasanna Mohanty. Are you in favour of direct cas
Dr Alok Shukla is among those civil servants who received awards for excellence in public administration from the prime minister on April 21. As secretary, food and civil supplies department, Chhattisgarh, he, along with two of his colleagues, has been credited with turning the much-maligned PDS into a success story. So much so that a sample survey of four districts by the Righ
The new world is not structured around the United States; it is multipolar, heterogeneous, global, and has different centres of power, says Thierry de Montbrial, president of French Institute of International Relations, a leading French think-tank, in a conversation with Trithesh Nandan. About India, Montbrial feels that the country is growing economically, which is good, but lacks the aspirati
Academic-turned-bureaucrat Kaushik Basu, who termed Indian civil servants as "ace drivers caught in traffic jams", feels bureaucratic and farm reforms are must for the economy to grow at the 10 percent rate. However, the former Cornell University economics professor, who joined the government as cheif economic advisor last December, says India`s growth story is more sustainable than C
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the country’s official think tank - the Planning Commission, feels that more than special monetary incentives or packages, the governance change is required to ease the situation in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts. Besides, Ahluwalia also strongly recommends linking fuel prices in the country with global prices as it is essent
C Chandramouli, 49, the Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer of 1985 batch, is overseeing the mammoth exercise of counting nearly 1.2 billion heads. He took time off his busy schedule to speak to Trithesh Nandan about Census 2011. Excerpts from the interview: A census is not just a simple head count. Tell us about the process and its implications. The census is
It was a bittersweet moment for the media recently when the Supreme Court upheld the Delhi High Court judgement and awarded life imprisonment to Manu Sharma in the Jessica Lal murder case. The case reached the Supreme Court and its logical conclusion only after the Delhi High Court fast-tracked it following uproar in the media. While pronouncing its verdict, though, the Supreme Court cautioned
Surendra Mohan is perhaps is the only surviving socialist who can claim to have closely worked with Ram Manohar Lohia, imbibed and understood his leader’s anti-Congressism credo and its context. In a free-wheeling interview with Ajay Singh at his east Delhi home on a Sunday evening, he talks about Sonia Gandhi and the UPA’s “socialist and egalitarian&rdquo
Ajay Mathur, the director general of Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), has been taking a number of initiatives to fulfill the mandate of his organisation. The bureau now plans to set up funds to help companies to get energy efficiency measures financed. Innovation centres are also being set up by the bureau to further the development of energy efficient products suited to
At a time when Indo-Pakistan relations are somewhat subdued, Pakistan`s former information and broadcasting minister Sherry Rehman feels that there is too much communication gap between the two neighbours and that does not bode well for good governance in South Asia. Talking exclusively to Governance Now, Rehman says positive investment investment is needed in this regard. She was in New De
Anil K. Gupta, professor at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), is better known for his work on nurturing and promoting innovation at the grassroots level. He is executive vice-chairperson of National Innovation Foundation (NIF). He also heads the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI). It was at the historic Mughal Gard
On March 6, I made an e-mail request to Nandan Nilekani for an interview. Barely an hour later, came his reply suggesting that I should get in touch with his colleague Srikar and within no time the interview was scheduled for 11 am on April 8. On April 8, when we reached the office of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in the heart of New Delhi, we did not have to
As the debate over the susceptibility of electronic voting machines (EVMs) to electoral fraud heats up, India is looking at the experience of other countries. Till Jaeger, a German attorney, who visited India in February, believes that the use of EVMs is a violation of citizens’ fundamental right to information in a democracy. In an interview to Governance Now, Jaeger, who argued a landma
