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
KV Thomas, minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, plans to take forward the national food security bill in the winter session of parliament. He is confident that India can and will implement the right to food. A relentless optimist, he dismisses surveys which paint a bleak picture of India’s food security and insists that conditions are much improved. Excerpts from t
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
Delhi and Mumbai figure among 95 world cities identified by the United Nations as those moving towards prosperity, but the two Indian metropolis are just "half-way" to achieving it with the reasons being poor infrastructure and environment conditions among others. The report places Delhi at 58t
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
India is expected to see a substantial jump in the number of millionaires in the next five years as the total tally for the super rich in the country is likely to touch 242,000 by 2017, a report says. According to a Credit Suisse Research Institute`s Global Wealth Report, the number of millionaires in the country in 2012 stands at 158,000, which is likely to swell to 242,000 by the year
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
As the UK decided to resume diplomatic relations with him, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi thundered on Thursday, telling an election rally that the whole world is looking up at the state but not the Manmohan Singh goernment. Last year he told us the central government was treating his regime like an enemy nation. We reproduce here that interview.
In a country with a frenzied appetite for economic growth, hunger among the Indian poor this year is no different from what it was sixteen years back. The latest Global Hunger Index report puts India’s hunger management in the “alarming” category. However, the only solace is that hunger has fallen sl
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 first Norman Borlaug award, instituted by the Rockefeller Foundation in the memory of the Nobel laureate who fathered the green revolution, was given to a young scholar from India. Aditi Mukherji, a social scientist with the International Water Management Institute, New Delhi, was selected from among several candidates for her research on the usage of groundwater resources in West Bengal wh
