US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s visit has made India’s diplomatic community work overtime. The former first lady has reiterated America’s stand over India’s oil imports from Iran. The US wants India to minimise oil imports from the Middle-Eastern country as its beef over Iran’s nuclear programme gets worse. New Delhi on the other hand has
In the past couple of years, the union government has been accusing the apex court of stepping into the executive’s domain and making policy decisions on its behalf. This act of the court is described as “judicial overreach”. There is little to dispute this but to understand why so, we need to look at the latest court verdict. On Tuesday, the a
Had Stevenson (Robert Louis) taken an Indian train ever, he would not have written this: “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” The greatness of the affair, my fellow Indian railway passengers would agree, ends the moment we fling open a toilet door. First of all, we have learnt by now that we shouldn&rsq
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s visit has made India’s diplomatic community work overtime. The former first lady has reiterated America’s stand over India’s oil imports from Iran. The US wants India to minimise oil imports from the Middle-Eastern country as its beef over Iran’s nuclear programme gets worse. New Delhi on the other hand has cle
In the past couple of years, the union government has been accusing the apex court of stepping into the executive’s domain and making policy decisions on its behalf. This act of the court is described as “judicial overreach”. There is little to dispute this but to understand why so, we need to look at the latest court verdict. On Tuesday, the apex
The US presidential elections are round the corner. President Barack Obama has already begun his campaign and outsourcing is one of the issues on the agenda. Only recently, Obama accused presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney of favouring outsourcing jobs to India. It was against this background that secretary of state Hillary Clinton arrived in India on a three
In a new report, Greenpeace India says that Bt. Brinjal poses a threat to ecological balance and plant diversity. “One major concern is the potential for transgene flow from Bt brinjal to wild, weedy and cultivated relatives. As a consequence, selective advantage gained by the Bt pest resistance gene could enable these relatives to become aggressive weeds,” says the report authored
Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh, Subject:- High cost of imported nuclear reactors at the expense of the Indian tax payer Ref.: 1 My letter dated 17-12-2011 addressed to you 2 Reported statement of Secretary (DAE) on the high cost of imported nuclear power reactors In addition to pointing out the inherent dangers of nucle
False closures of corruption bleed the system. Every day has to matter. When something like the scale and violence of Bofors happens, you begin to question your own faith as a professional and a human being. When you start losing faith, you begin to lose hope. When hope is lost, everything is lost. We cannot afford to let that happen. Maybe we will get nowhere, but silence cannot be the answer&
I write this from the 2012 London conference of women lawyers organised by the International Bar Association (IBA). Here we are, 300 women serving the law, from 50 jurisdictions of the global judiciary; searching the silver bullet for challenges faced by us. Why did I realise only now: the challenges before women in law practice and judiciary are the same the world over! Confessio
According to a UNICEF report, 30 percent of adolescent girls in India are married and at least 22 percent became mothers before hey attained adulthood. In comparison, only five percent of male adolescents were married. The report also says that 47 percent of women in the 20-24 years age group got married before they turned 18. Fifteen percent women got married even before they attained the age
It`s raining rights these days. Every government, at the centre and in the states, is passing more and more laws guaranteeing rights to the citizen. Even the judiciary has joined the race, expanding the ‘fundamental rights’ beyond what the constitution envisaged or mandated. Recall how the apex court said recently that right to sleep is also a fundamental right! Never
It’s a sign of the times that a struggling democracy like Pakistan too can offer a lesson or two to the largest and well-established one like India. The supreme court convicted prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of contempt of court on Thursday. Gilani was found guilty because he refused the court order to write to the Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against preside
Knowing how little I know about the science of architecture, I was intrigued when I was invited to talk about grassroots innovations to a very interesting, intriguing and inspiring meeting of some of the world’s most famous architects. Rauzia Ally, half Kashmiri, half Keralite and Guyanese in some measure, the architect of this meeting, tried to create chemistry of Sufi traditions,
My lord, I bring this debate in your court for two reasons. First, which other judge in this country judges as a force of habit? Your honour, our judge emeritus, does. Second, you were the first to jump to former Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s support after that jinxed weekend when the viewers missed watching The Dirty Picture, the screening of which was stalled even after 59-
SAS India, the India arm of the largest privately held software company with focus on business analytics and business intelligence, considers dealing with the government as the biggest challenge in the analytics business. Ironically, the government is its biggest customer. Sudipta K Sen, CEO & MD, SAS India, in an interview with Shubham Batra discusses recent projects and future plans of th
More than a billion people around the world could face starvation if a nuclear war breaks out between India and Pakistan, according to a new report which said the "nuclear famine" will be an ``unprecedented`` disaster that would bring an end to modern civilisation. The report released by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) said a nuclear "co
Writing about morality and public life (or public figure or public anything) is a challenge. You need a reliable proof-reader, to begin with. One letter missing and the debate becomes more interesting than intended. Still. Singhvi’s seedy episode calls for a comment. People have survived in politics despite far more incriminating evidence against them than what is on record
UN countries have failed to meet a target for reducing the death toll from measles, mainly due to poor vaccine coverage in India and outbreaks in southern Africa, The Lancet reported. In 2008, all members of the UN`s World Health Organisation (WHO) endorsed a target of reducing measles mortality by 90 per cent by 2010 compared to levels in 2000. In 2010, global deaths were 139,3
If you thought the phrases like “the weakest prime minister ever”, “policy paralysis” and “United Paralysis Alliance” are the language of the political adversaries, think again. Even those closest to the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and his government have come to the same conclusion. The language may be different but the message is equally, or even more,
